


The Kindred

by torturingtaylor (itzaimster)



Series: Kindred Series [1]
Category: Hanson
Genre: Brothers, Clones, Conspiracy, Gen, Genetics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-07-25 12:32:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7532926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itzaimster/pseuds/torturingtaylor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taylor is pulled into a genetic conspiracy when a familiar face turns up in Tulsa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

It was a night like any other, late and dark. The brothers had spent a long evening perfecting their parts in the studio and it was finally time to head home. After locking up the back door and making sure everything was secure, Taylor threw his satchel over his shoulder and mounted his pushbike in order to head for a local bar where he’d organised to meet some friends.  
He’d only just turned onto Archer Street when he noticed the car. It had been anything but subtle in its attempt to follow him from Main Street. He hadn’t noticed it at first so he wasn’t sure where it had come from, but now that he was paying attention he knew in his gut that something was wrong.  
He gained a little speed just to see what it would do. He heard the accelerator pump. He diverted up onto the sidewalk but the car wasn’t slowing down.  
A quick glance over his shoulder was all he had time for before the bumper connected with his back tire. The car had come up after him. The initial blow wasn’t enough to knock him from the bike, but the follow-up hit was.  
He landed hard on the concrete and rolled to the right with a groan as the car continued past. Quickly managing to pull himself up to check where it was, his blood ran cold when he saw it turning at the intersection and starting to make its way back on the wrong side of the road.  
“What the hell?!” he choked under his breath, struggling to pull himself to his feet.  
Blinded by the headlights, he didn’t see the figure coming for him. But he felt rough hands grab him by the shoulders and pull him behind a barrier just in time for the car to hit it.  
“Come on!” the person urged – voice familiar but he couldn’t place it.  
Once Taylor found his feet he managed to grab his satchel from where it had fallen and follow the stranger up the hill toward the Center of the Universe. He’d barely made it to the top when he started to feel dizzy.  
“Hey! You okay?!” the person darted back when they realised he’d fallen against the monument.  
Taylor’s hand went to his forehead, and he winced when he felt warm liquid. Pulling his hand away he was only partially surprised to see blood.  
“I hit my head,” he managed to get out, looking up at the shadow leaning over him.  
“You have to get up! He’s coming back!”  
The figure was already blurring, but Taylor could make out the gold-striped sleeve of a navy hoodie and a tuft of blond hair coming from the hood itself. Then quite suddenly he was again blinded by headlights.  
A groan came from his rescuer as he attempted to lift Taylor by the shoulder, managing to barely pull him to the other side of the concrete block in time. Taylor fell onto his side as the screech of tires echoed down the walkway, looking up in time to see a flash from the lights hit the face of the person with him.  
“What the…?”  
But he barely had time to comprehend what he’d seen before he finally passed out.


	2. Part One

Taylor awoke with a start, already hearing voices.  
“Tay? Tay?!”  
Quickly rubbing his eyes, he looked up to see Isaac standing over him. The worry was evident on his face.  
“Where am I?” he frowned, realising Isaac wasn’t alone.  
Two paramedics stood behind him, and they looked like they’d been there a while.  
“You’re at the studio,” Isaac informed him, “you called me, said you’d been in a hit and run.”  
“I did?” Taylor frowned again as one of the EMTs saw to his head wound.  
“We’re going to need to get you to the hospital,” the other told him, “do you think you can walk to the ambulance?”  
“Sure,” Taylor instantly tried to sit up.  
He had to pause halfway as the vertigo hit.   
“You don’t remember calling?” Isaac’s brow furrowed.  
“I don’t remember anything,” Taylor shook his head.  
“Not unusual with this kind of injury,” the paramedic assured.  
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Isaac leant over the arm of the couch when he realised Taylor wasn’t moving further.  
“Leaving for the night,” he shrugged, “I was heading down to Fassler when…”  
He paused with a frown, then winced as the paramedic started placing tape over the cut.  
“When what?” Isaac pressed.  
“Can you stand?” the second paramedic prompted again.  
Taylor braced himself for a moment, before holding onto the couch and pulling himself to his feet. Isaac held his shoulder steady as he waited for the dizziness to subside.  
“Right this way,” they indicated for the brothers to head out to the back door.  
“Someone tried to hit me with their car?” Taylor realised as he began to walk.  
“That’s what you said,” Isaac agreed, “but you couldn’t identify them.”  
“I don’t even remember coming back here,” Taylor shook his head.  
“You must have passed out right away,” Isaac conceded.  
“And where’s my bike?” Taylor took a quick look around inside the back before they stepped out into the alley.  
“I didn’t see it anywhere,” Isaac admitted.  
He turned to lock up as the paramedics helped Taylor into the ambulance.   
“Natalie,” he suddenly realised as he took a seat on the gurney, “Ike?!”  
“I’ve already called her, she’s going to meet you there,” Isaac promised.  
“Are you riding with us?” a paramedic asked him, noting he was reluctant to get in.  
“I’ll follow in my car,” he assured, “I’ll see you soon Tay.”  
Taylor just nodded as the doors closed. 

The ride to the hospital was swift, though they didn’t use their sirens. Taylor was taken into an admittance area to wait for a doctor, and he arrived before Isaac did. The grazes on his right arm were promptly sprayed and bandaged, but the wound on his head was causing some concern – particularly because he’d lost consciousness. The doctor was just telling him how many stitches he’d need when Isaac finally appeared.  
“What’s the verdict?” he asked apprehensively.  
“We’re going to keep him in overnight and most of tomorrow, just for observation,” the doctor addressed Isaac rather than Taylor, “we’ll need to monitor this wound and keep him awake for a while.”  
“It’s going to be a long night,” Taylor mused, already not looking forward to it.  
“There’s police outside,” Isaac informed them, “I think they’re here to talk to you.”  
Taylor grimaced at that as the doctor began to collect his things.  
“I’ll be back shortly to apply your stitches,” he promised before taking his leave.  
“Sounds fun,” Isaac smirked.  
“What am I going to tell the cops?” Taylor’s brow creased in worry.  
“Just tell the truth, that you don’t remember anything,” Isaac shrugged, “I think they’ll let you off for it. There’s a lot of blood on the couch by the way.”  
Taylor looked uneasy and Isaac quickly noticed.  
“But I mean it should be easy enough to get off,” he scratched his head awkwardly.  
“That’s not it,” Taylor admitted, taking a quick look around to make sure no one could hear, “I mean I remember some things, but they’re _weird_.”  
“What do you mean?” Isaac debated taking a seat but put a hand on his hip instead.  
“I mean weird,” Taylor insisted, “like… I remember trying to avoid this car – red, by the way – and going up onto the pavement and the car hitting me.”  
Isaac frowned. This wasn’t the version he’d heard.  
“And some guy just came out of nowhere and grabbed me after I fell.”  
“There was someone else there?”   
“Yeah! And he pulled me up and took me up the hill-“  
“What hill?”  
“Where the Center of the Universe thing is,” Taylor shrugged, “but I got dizzy because I’d hit my head when I came off so I had to stop, and the car came back-“  
“Wait, it tried again?” Isaac was already in disbelief.  
“I don’t think this was random,” Taylor shook his head, “whoever this was, they came after me. They nearly hit me again but this guy was helping me. And I thought I saw his face before I passed out, but I can’t possibly be remembering it right.”  
“What do you mean?” Isaac tried to understand as the doctor came back into view, “you seem to be remembering it well so far.”  
“Because it looked like me,” Taylor insisted, “but like, me from ten years ago when I had long hair. Like I said, _weird_.”  
Isaac winced as the doctor brought his instruments over and began to break open the sterilised thread.  
“Don’t say anything,” Taylor insisted.  
“I won’t,” Isaac assured, “but they’ll probably-“  
He cut off as his phone suddenly rang, garnering a pointed look from the doctor.  
“Sorry,” he quickly dug it from his pocket, “Tay I’ll be right back.”  
Taylor turned his attention to the doctor as Isaac answered the call.  
“Hey Nat. Yeah I’m here, where are you? …Okay go to your right…”  
“Just turn your head slightly,” the doctor instructed, using his fingertips to gently move it where he needed, “great. This shouldn’t take long.”  
Taylor braced himself for the pain that was coming, hoping Natalie wouldn’t walk in just in time to see it happening. She appeared with River in tow just as he was finishing up and had begun to apply the gauze in preparation for bandaging.  
“Where’s Ike?” Taylor asked, after insisting he was okay.  
“He’s outside talking to the police,” Natalie replied, “I think they’re taking a witness statement.”  
“Do you have more than I had?” River indicated the stitching that had already been covered up.  
“I’m not sure,” Taylor mused, “we’ll have to count them later and compare.”  
“Let’s not make this a competition,” Natalie insisted.  
“Winner gets cake,” Taylor leant forward to whisper, making River grin.  
Natalie rolled her eyes and took up the nearby seat.   
“Did they tell you I have to stay over?” Taylor looked to her.  
“Yes I spoke with them on the way in,” she assured, “we’ll be fine. Nikki was on her way over when I left.”  
“Neither of you have to stay,” Taylor shook his head, “I won’t be going anywhere.”  
“That’s not what we’re worried about,” Natalie’s voice lowered.  
Taylor was about to ask when he caught sight of two police officers making their way into the area. Isaac was following behind them warily.   
“Mister Hanson,” one of the officers nodded, “a word?”  
“River,” Natalie indicated for him to step aside with her.  
“I’ll be right here,” Taylor assured him, watching as Isaac put a hand on River’s shoulder.  
“And we’ll be right outside,” he assured in turn.  
Taylor just nodded as Natalie took her handbag and followed them out. The officers waited until they were out of earshot, though Taylor’s eyes followed them to the door.  
“Your brother tells us you were attacked,” the first led with, notepad at the ready.  
“Yeah,” Taylor agreed, “I was.”  
“Did you see the driver of the car?”  
“No. Maybe like a glimpse,” Taylor shook his head, “nothing more than a shadow. I couldn’t give you a height or a hairstyle or anything. There was obviously someone in the car.”  
“Where did they follow you from?”  
“I’m not sure,” he was honest, “I noticed them as I turned onto Archer Street from the alley, so they could have been waiting there. They weren’t in the alley. Or if they were I didn’t see them, and it’s not very wide.”  
“And where were you hit?”  
“Corner of Archer and Boston,” Taylor rubbed the other side of his head.  
“You landed on your head?”  
“I landed on my side,” Taylor indicated the injury to his arm, “and hit my head on the way down. I ended up blacking out so to be honest I’m not sure how reliable my memory is.”  
Their questions ended up being very routine, but they managed to get a description of the car from him. When asked for a description of the man who’d helped him he simply said he was tall and blond and wearing a blue hoodie. By now he was already starting to convince himself he hadn’t seen what he’d thought he’d seen, so if they could find the actual person who’d helped him… all the better.  
Maybe he’d get some answers about what had actually happened.  
Or who might want to hurt him.

“Is there anything you want me to bring you? From the studio maybe, so you can work?” Isaac suggested.  
“Maybe my laptop,” Taylor considered, “that should keep me awake.”  
“You can’t spend all night on it though,” Natalie cautioned.  
“I’ll watch some TV,” he shrugged, “but I might as well get some work done.”  
“I’ll go get it now,” Isaac started to back off, “River, want to come?”  
“Sure,” he jumped up from where he’d been swinging his legs from the end of the bed.  
“It’s getting kinda late, you should probably get him home,” Taylor directed at Natalie as he watched after them.  
“I’ll take him when they get back,” she promised, “but he wasn’t sleeping to begin with, so don’t worry.”  
“Is he okay?” Taylor frowned.  
“Fine. Just one of those nights.”  
An awkward moment of silence followed as Natalie worked herself up to ask;  
“Can you think of anyone that would _want_ to hurt you?”  
“Not from the top of my head,” Taylor admitted, “but it’s not like it hasn’t come from left field before.”  
Natalie nodded in agreement.  
“That’s true,” she said aloud, “were the cops worried?”  
“About them coming back? No,” Taylor shook his head, “I mean it was on the street, we don’t know that it wasn’t random. I was the only one on the street, they might have just been waiting for an opportunity.”  
“Who would even know you were going out tonight?” she frowned, “besides who you were meeting.”  
“I told Ike and Zac, and you, and that’s it,” he shrugged, “it was only last minute.”  
“Are they all accounted for? The people you were meeting?”  
“Yes, and I’m sure the cops will talk to them,” Taylor could see where she was going and didn’t like it one bit, “I called Mike when I got here to let them know where I was.”  
“Just checking,” Natalie picked up on his defensiveness.  
“I know.”  
“They didn’t see anything?”  
“No, I was late already. They would have been inside.”  
Natalie sighed just as the nurse who’d been seeing to him reappeared. They watched her approach in silence.  
“We have a ward ready for you,” she informed them, “we can move you as soon as you’re ready.”  
“Great,” Taylor grabbed his phone from the bedside table and got to his feet.  
“Are you okay to walk?” Natalie frowned, “I can get a wheelchair…”  
“I’ll be fine,” he insisted, already a little annoyed at the cotton wool, “we just need to text Ike when we get there.”  
They followed the nurse together as she led them through the hospital, taking him to a private ward toward the back. Once there he was offered a change of clothes and access to the room’s television set. He quickly managed to get himself sorted before Isaac and River could make it back, and by the time they returned he was already settled in bed.  
He set his laptop up on the moveable table across the bed with Isaac and River taking care of the cords for both computer and phone. Once he was quite obviously settled in, Natalie decided to take her leave.  
“I’ll be back in the morning to see how you’re doing,” she leant over the bed to give him a kiss.  
“Please bring me real coffee,” he pleaded as she pulled away.  
“I’ll see what I can do,” she mused, making room for River to hug his Dad.   
“Bye Dad!” he followed his Mom from the room, Isaac watching after with a smile.  
Taylor leant over to grab his arm, making him jump.  
“You didn’t say anything to the cops about what I said, right?” he had to check.  
“Of course not,” he insisted, straightening his sleeve, “I just said that you told me someone helped you.”  
“Thanks,” Taylor breathed a sigh of relief, “the last thing I need is to be transferred to the psych ward.”  
“Are you sure you saw what you saw?” Isaac frowned, “because if so, you might want to-“  
“No,” Taylor shook his head, leaning back, “I’m not sure of anything anymore. But look how much I bled, my memory’s probably playing with me.”  
“You seemed pretty sure of yourself,” Isaac pressed, “not to mention, you were pretty freaked.”  
“What did I say when I called you?” Taylor frowned.  
“You don’t remember calling?”  
“No,” Taylor shook his head, “the last thing I remember is passing out on the overpass.”  
“Okay…” Isaac paused to remember, looking to the ceiling, “I believe you said… ‘I need help, someone hit me with their car, I didn’t see anything’ and ‘I’m at the studio’.”  
“Weird,” Taylor nodded to himself, “I mean why would I say I didn’t see anything? I did!”  
“I don’t know,” Isaac shrugged, “I can’t help you with that.”  
“God I hope I’m not going crazy,” Taylor rubbed his head again.  
“We’re all already crazy,” Isaac chuckled softly, “so if you’re all set up, I’ll take myself home.”  
“Yeah sure, go ahead,” Taylor waved him off, “I’ll still be here in the morning.”  
“I was planning to call Zac first thing…”  
“Nat already spoke to Kate, they’re going to wait until they let me out,” Taylor informed him, “I mean if you guys want to keep going tomorrow don’t let me stop you.”  
“I’ll have a talk with him and see what he thinks,” Isaac promised, “what about the fans? They’ll probably find out soon enough.”  
“I was thinking of posting a pathetic hospital selfie,” Taylor smirked, “but I’ll put a blog up later so no one worries.”  
“Maybe after you leave the hospital might be better,” Isaac mused, “good night Tay. I guess?”  
“Good night,” Taylor smiled back, sitting himself up straighter again so he could turn the laptop on.


	3. Part Two

Twenty-four hours after the incident, Taylor was allowed home. He’d been allowed to sleep during the day so had expected to be awake all night for a second time, but found himself still worn out and had headed to bed straight after dinner. He was back to his normal schedule almost immediately.  
It had only been midweek when it had happened, so he of course went straight back to work. While it was fine to work in the studio with his brothers and their producers who all knew what had happened, he had an event on the Saturday where he knew people might start asking questions. He’d done a quick Q&A for the local paper but hadn’t wanted any more attention on the matter. Particularly while there was an ongoing police investigation. He hadn’t heard anything back from them by the time Saturday came around, but he hadn’t had high hopes to begin with.  
Saturday morning he found himself at the Tulsa Community College wrangling the food trucks, produce and volunteers for Food On The Move. His cap covered his head wound for the most part but he couldn’t hide the bandage on his arm. It had been too hot to wear a jacket.  
For the most part, the people present were more concerned with the event itself. He was able to blow off a few questions and easily answer others while focusing on the job at hand. His two younger sons had both joined him for the day and he was in the middle of convincing Viggo to go and spend some time in the library truck when he caught a shadow in his peripheral.  
Looking to the side, he saw someone standing in the shadow of a tree at the edge of the car lot. He couldn’t make out their face, but the hoodie they wore had made him freeze.  
“Dad?” Viggo’s voice snapped him out of it, “who is that?”  
“No one,” Taylor insisted, standing up from where he’d been kneeling.  
When he looked back the figure had gone.  
“Go on,” he gave Viggo a tap on the shoulder, the eight year old grumbling in turn as he did as told.  
Taylor’s eyes scanned the distance, trying to find the hooded figure. Surely he hadn’t just imagined it? It had been three days, his mind shouldn’t have still been playing tricks on him. But despite the very real possibility, he headed for the tree.   
The man was still nowhere in sight, but the tree appeared to be casting an odd shadow. After a quick glance over his shoulder to check that the kids were occupied he took a deep breath and stepped forward to where he could see the sleeve of the hoodie.  
The distinctive Golden State Warriors hoodie that he remembered all too well.  
“Hey,” he was surprised how nervous he felt.  
The guy did have long blond hair, but was wearing large sunglasses. Taylor could see how he’d have made the assumption that he’d looked like him, but he could also see the differences now. It calmed him dramatically.  
“Hey.”  
That voice though. The voice had him back on edge.  
“Just wanted to see that you were okay,” that voice caught his attention again.  
“Thanks to you I believe,” he extended his hand, trying to ignore it, “Taylor.”  
“Carey,” the stranger pulled his hand from a pocket to accept.  
“I don’t mean to press you into anything,” Taylor decided to get down to business, “but I know the police would really like to speak to you about what happened on Tuesday night. I know a few people that would, actually.”  
“I don’t think you’d want that,” Carey held back a smirk.  
Taylor was a little taken aback, and had to work himself up to ask.  
“Why not?”  
“Because it might create more questions than answers,” Carey apprehensively looked over his shoulder back toward the event, “there’s a reason I couldn’t just come up to you on the street, and I think you know what it is.”  
Taylor knew what it was, but he didn’t want to believe it. There had to be another reason.  
“What is it?” he frowned, feeling himself shiver a little.  
Casey did smirk at that before ducking his head. He reached up to pull the sunglasses from his face before looking directly into Taylor’s eyes.  
Taylor lost what little breath he had. He hadn’t been seeing things. Or if he had, it was becoming one hell of a trip.  
It was like looking into a mirror. A weird, thin, rusty old mirror.   
“So…” Carey broke the stare to replace his sunglasses, knowing he now had Taylor well and truly caught off-guard, “I think we should keep this between us, don’t you?”  
“Did you know who was in the car?” was the first thing Taylor thought to ask.  
“I do know,” Carey admitted straight out, “he won’t be a problem.”  
“So it was an attack on me?” Taylor confirmed, “was it to get to you? I mean who _are_ you?”  
“You’ve got nothing to worry about,” Carey insisted, talking with his hands, “the moment’s passed. I’ve taken care of it.”  
“Why should I believe you?” Taylor frowned, “who are you? My twin?!”  
“No,” Carey scoffed.  
“Then what’s going on?!”  
“Okay first, you might want to keep your voice down,” Carey cautioned, “because this is not something we want to draw attention to.”  
“Why not?” Taylor was already getting fed up, “maybe then I’ll get some answers.”  
“Because it’s dangerous, okay? And not just for us,” Carey had turned serious, “if you want answers, this is not the time or place.”  
Taylor looked back toward the event. He’d caught River’s attention already and internally grimaced.  
“Then when and where?” he conceded defeat, “do you even know what ‘this’ is?”  
“I have it on good authority, yeah,” Carey assured, “I’m staying at the Quality Inn on Concord in Broken Arrow. Bottom floor, fourth room on the right. But I’ll be leaving first thing Monday.”  
“Monday, okay,” Taylor confirmed aloud.  
“And don’t let anyone see you if you come,” Carey warned, “there’s enough weird shit going on already.”  
“Tell me about it.”  
Carey smirked again.  
“You’d better get back to work,” he suggested.  
“Yeah…” Taylor was reluctant to pull himself away, wanting to know everything then and there.  
“ _Go_ ,” Carey nodded over his shoulder.  
Taylor bit his lip awkwardly, but forced himself to walk away all the same. It was hard to not look over his shoulder though he knew Carey would probably stay hidden. He made it back to River’s side before he let himself look back. There was no sign of Carey.  
“Why were you talking to a tree?” River asked.  
“What? I wasn’t,” Taylor got defensive, “come on, let’s find your brother.”

It was late afternoon by the time the boys made it home. Once Taylor had some time to pull away, he took his cell phone into his study and dialled Isaac’s number. He hurriedly closed the door before his brother could answer.  
“Hello?”  
“Ike! You will not believe who I ran into at On The Move!” he tried to keep his voice down, but it was hard.  
“The president?”  
“What?”  
Taylor paused, taking a moment before rolling his eyes.  
“Ike I wasn’t crazy. The guy that helped me that night, he looks _just like me_.”  
There was a pause on the other end, and Taylor couldn’t hear anything for a while.  
“Ike, you there?”  
“Yeah, yeah,” Taylor sighed in relief when his voice came through, “so… what do you mean? What now?”  
“I mean he looks _exactly_ like me, except clean shaven with long hair,” Taylor could feel his heart racing as he even only described Carey, “he says we’re not twins, but he wouldn’t tell me anything else. He wants me to meet with him.”  
“Wait, you spoke to him?”  
It sounded like it had suddenly clicked with Isaac that this wasn’t just a delusion after all.  
“Yes,” Taylor confirmed, “his name is Carey, and I think he’s from California. He was wearing a Golden State hoodie just like I remembered.”  
“Golden State? The guys that stole Durant?”  
“Uh… yeah?”  
“So he’s not from around here?”  
“I guess not,” Taylor shrugged, “he’s staying at a motel not far from here and said he’s leaving on Monday.”  
“That’s not a lot of time.”  
“Tell me about it. What do I do?”  
“Have you talked to Nat?”  
“No,” Taylor was pacing, “I haven’t even told her what happened on Tuesday night. That Carey was there.”  
“Maybe you should?” Isaac suggested.  
“That’s not the issue right now!”  
“What are you asking? You want me to tell you whether or not to meet him?”  
“Yes!” Taylor insisted.  
There was another pause.  
“Why on Earth do you need me to decide that for you?” he came back with, obviously confused, “isn’t it a given that you should find out everything you can?”  
“Then come with me.”  
“…You want me to come with you?”  
“Yes. That’s what I said.”  
“Are you sure?”  
“ _Yes_ I’m sure! Just come with me. You don’t have to come in or anything but just… be there.”  
“You’re saying you need my awesome older brother moral support?” he couldn’t help but tease.  
“Don’t start. Not with this.”  
“Fine,” he let out a little chuckle, “I’ll come with, just let me know when.”  
“I was thinking tonight, but Natalie wanted a quiet night in,” Taylor winced, “maybe tomorrow morning?”  
“I thought we were meeting Zac tomorrow because you couldn’t today?”  
“I forgot about that,” he grit his teeth instead, “what about after? We could take off early. You can leave your car here.”  
“Are you going to tell Zac?”  
Taylor hesitated at that, thinking it over.  
“I think I want to find out what’s going on first,” he admitted, “and then if I decide to tell anyone, I’ll start with Nat.”  
“Good call. Talk tomorrow?”  
“Sure. See you there.”

Taylor’s nerves were on high in the studio, and it showed. Zac got fed up early on and Isaac ended up calling a timeout. They didn’t manage to get done what they’d wanted to.  
But as a result, Isaac and Taylor were on their way even earlier than planned. Which Isaac for one hoped meant this would be over with faster. He and Zac weren’t the only ones who needed their brother back on board, despite knowing how important this meeting was to him.  
They left Isaac’s car at Taylor’s house and Taylor drove him out to the motel. It was barely after lunchtime but neither of them were thinking about food yet. There was plenty of room in the car lot at the Quality Inn and Taylor reversed in so they could sit and stare at the building.  
“Is this definitely the place?” Isaac asked after a moment’s silence.  
“Bottom floor, fourth room on the right,” Taylor nodded.  
“Curtain’s closed,” Isaac observed.  
“I don’t blame him.”  
“Do you want me to come in?” Isaac offered, noticing he was a lot more on edge than he had been at the studio.  
“I don’t know. No? Maybe not at first. I think he said to come alone,” Taylor rubbed his face.  
“Like that sounds like a _great_ idea,” Isaac was suddenly worried.  
Taylor took a deep breath, trying to ignore his brother’s tone.  
“Wish me luck?” he opened his door.  
“Good luck,” Isaac watched after him as he closed it and made his way toward the building before he could change his mind.  
Taylor was beginning to tell himself that Carey might not even be here. He hadn’t specified a time, and he might have gone for food or the like. Did he have a car? Was he even here alone? Why had he been in Tulsa in the first place?  
He skirted the front desk on his way in and went straight for the rooms. He counted carefully and double checked when he’d made it to the fourth door.  
Had Carey even been real? How much brain damage could he have done when he’d fallen from the bike?  
Grimacing to himself, he knocked sharply.   
He could hear low voices inside and began practising his ‘sorry, wrong room’ speech in his head. But Carey hadn’t said anything about whether or not he’d been here alone.   
There was an excruciating pause, a mumbled ‘what the fuck?’, and the door opened.  
Taylor barely had time to register that it wasn’t Carey before the man grabbed him by the shirt and dragged him inside.


	4. Part Three

“What the!” Taylor stumbled into the small walkway as the door closed behind him.  
“Are you fucking kidding me?! You _invited_ him?!”  
“I’m just here to see Carey,” Taylor backed up into the room nervously, the black-hooded man following him.  
“Taylor?”  
He looked over his shoulder to see Carey emerging from the bathroom. He was wearing shorts and a black sleeveless shirt, and was drying his hair with one of the hotel towels.  
“Hey, you made it!”  
“I did,” Taylor eyed over his shoulder where the second person shadowed him.  
He suddenly did a double take.  
“Taylor, this is Mark,” Carey introduced, “he’s…”  
Mark pulled his hood down to reveal his buzz cut hairstyle and Taylor instantly felt sick to the stomach.  
“…Yeah.”  
“What are you looking at?” Mark scorned.  
“Whoa, whoa, whoa…” Taylor managed to back himself up between the beds, his eyes darting between the two of them, “what… I mean…”  
“Mark? Take a walk,” Carey nodded to the door.  
Mark was staring at Taylor and didn’t seem to hear him. When Taylor realised, he stared back.  
“Mark?!” Carey finally snapped him out of it.  
“This is a bad idea,” Mark pointed to Taylor, talking to Carey, “don’t say I didn’t warn you when it all turns to shit.”  
“Duly noted,” Carey saluted as Mark turned to leave.  
“Wait a second-“ Taylor frowned, not entirely sure that he wanted him to leave.  
“Fuck you!” Mark threw the bird over his shoulder before disappearing altogether.  
Once he was gone, Taylor took a moment to pull himself together.  
“Sorry about that,” Carey offered, continuing to dry his hair.  
“There’s two of you?” Taylor’s brow furrowed.  
“Why don’t you take a seat?” Carey suggested, indicating the beds.  
“Why don’t you start telling me what’s going on?” Taylor counter-offered.  
Carey sighed and threw the towel back into the bathroom.  
“Was Mark in the car?” he suddenly thought out loud, “was he the one who tried to run me off the road?”  
“Yes,” Carey looked him in the eye again, “like I said, taken care of.”  
“How is that taken care of?” Taylor’s brow furrowed, “how do I know he’s not planning to try again?! How do I know he isn’t planning to come back with a gun?!”  
“Because I know, and I know him,” Carey insisted, “you weren’t worried before Tuesday, there’s no sense in worrying now.”  
“I had no idea you guys existed before Tuesday!” Taylor defended, “I thought I was going crazy! In no small part thanks to this lovely head wound your friend gave me.”  
“You’re not going crazy,” Carey assured, pulling up a chair and taking a seat, “at least not over this.”  
“Are we triplets?” Taylor guessed.  
“I highly doubt it,” Carey shook his head.  
“Do you even know what we are?”  
Carey took a moment to look down at the desk, as if trying to come up with an easy explanation.  
“I have a good guess,” he admitted, “but I’m not entirely sure, no.”  
“How do you two know each other then?”

“I shouldn’t be too much later I don’t think. If I’m going to be late, I’ll call,” Isaac promised into the phone as he kept an eye on the front door, “I’ll see you tonight. Love you.”  
He ended the call and started going through his phone to find the internet. He was about to google ‘Taylor Hanson lookalikes’ when movement from the front caught his attention.  
At first he thought it was Taylor, but then he realised the person was wearing different clothes. Thinking this might be Carey, Isaac quickly found the camera on his phone and took a few snaps as they took a quick look around before disappearing down the other side of the building. Trying not to let the possibility of a Taylor twin get to him, he waited until he was sure they weren’t coming back before going into his photos and enlarging what looked like the best one.  
“What the…?” he couldn’t help but say aloud as he focused.  
From what he could make out under the thin black hood, he definitely looked like Taylor. But his hair was a lot shorter and Taylor had said Carey’s hair had been long. Had he gone and cut it off once he’d been found out? But Taylor hadn’t mentioned anything about either the piercings or the very obvious scar running down the guy’s left cheek from his eye to almost his mouth.  
He was still trying to make sense of it when the phone rang and he nearly jumped out of his skin.  
“Tay?” he answered right away, “why’d he leave? Are you okay?”  
“Ike you might want to get in here.”

Isaac couldn’t help but be relieved when Taylor was the one to answer the door.  
“Everything okay?” he asked again, just to be sure.  
Taylor indicated for him to walk through, and closed the door behind him. Isaac was apprehensive as he entered the main room, Carey standing from his seat and offering his hand.  
“Hey Isaac, I’m Carey,” he offered a smile with it.  
“Hi,” Isaac found himself staring as he shook the hand.  
He couldn’t help it.  
“He’s the one who helped me,” Taylor elaborated, taking a seat on the far bed.  
“I gathered,” Isaac’s eyes had started roaming, “so who’s the other one?”  
“You saw Mark?” Carey looked wary.  
“Mark?” Isaac turned back to Taylor.  
“Yeah,” he was rubbing his knee to pacify himself, “turns out there’s more than one.”  
“ _How_?” was Isaac’s next question, “I mean, are our parents hiding one hell of a secret or…?”  
“Either way you look at it they probably are,” Taylor considered.  
“We’re not brothers,” Carey thought to put his mind at ease, “so don’t worry, I’m sure we’re no relation to you.”  
“How can that be possible?” Isaac was still looking between them, “Taylor is not adopted!”  
“That we know of,” Taylor looked like he’d already bereaved the possibility, “but how else do you explain this?”  
“How did you and… Mark? How do you two know each other?” Isaac looked to Carey.  
Carey shot Taylor a glance.  
“We’re brothers,” he revealed, making Taylor’s face lose a little colour, “we grew up together just outside of LA.”  
“Brothers,” Isaac confirmed, “yet you don’t think Tay’s one of you… why?”  
“Because there’s more,” Taylor said for Carey, making Isaac turn back to him, “there’s more than just three of us.”  
“Okay…” Isaac evidently hadn’t processed yet, “so _how_?”  
“We don’t know,” Carey shrugged, “I mean I have mine and Mark’s birth records, I assume you guys have access to Taylor’s.”  
Taylor nodded.  
“We were definitely born in different cities and on different days.”  
“How many are there?” Isaac frowned.  
“Including us? I know of five,” Carey revealed, “we’ve met the other two, but we didn’t want to – or _I_ didn’t want to – bring Taylor into this until we had to.”  
“So what changed?” Taylor frowned, “why did Mark come after me?”  
Carey looked like he really didn’t want to tell them, but both Isaac and Taylor stared him down in wait. He eventually sighed.  
“He’s kind’ve always had it in for you,” he tried to explain, “you know, the fact that you’re in the public eye and all. It meant that we couldn’t really do anything ourselves to draw too much attention. I guess that’s just kinda built up over the years and he just kind’ve exploded last week.”  
“How long have you known about this?” Isaac frowned, Taylor awkwardly scratching his neck in the background.  
“Since you guys went big?” Carey shrugged, “we knew something was up when Taylor’s face was everywhere and we started having to curb questions. We had to move further out of LA. Our Dad kinda hinted that our adoption might have been out of the ordinary and things spiralled from there. I didn’t really have the resources to look further into it until recently and I just sorta accidentally stumbled on Jesse and Colin. We’ve kept in touch with them but we’ve tried not to associate too much.”  
“Jesse and Colin,” Taylor muttered aloud, committing the names to memory.  
“Where are these other ones?” Isaac thought to ask.  
“I don’t really think I should tell you,” Carey’s eyes narrowed, “we all kind’ve agreed that keeping our distance was the best thing.”  
“Why?” Taylor spoke up, “why didn’t any one of you think that I might want to know before now?”  
“We did it for our protection. Both ours and yours,” Carey insisted, “it was an executive decision and I stand by it. Frankly you only know now because of Mark.”  
“And he didn’t seem too happy about that,” Taylor pointed out.  
“He only has himself to blame,” Carey shrugged, “he thinks you’ll put us all in danger.”  
“Why is he to blame?” Isaac jumped in, “and what danger?”  
“Ike sit down,” Taylor said softly, indicating the other bed.  
Isaac looked like he wanted to refuse, but ended up taking a seat.  
“Mark was the one in the car that hit Taylor,” Carey revealed, making Isaac frown, “for some reason he thought that if he took him out we wouldn’t have to worry about hiding anymore.”  
“That sounds stable,” Isaac scoffed.  
“What danger?” Taylor repeated Isaac’s earlier question, trying to distract Carey when he saw the look he was giving Isaac.  
“Honestly? I don’t know. We don’t know,” Carey admitted, “but this isn’t just some wild genetic coincidence. Someone out there is responsible for it, and there’s no way of knowing if they’re the good guys or the bad guys.”  
“You’re saying this might be an experiment,” Taylor tried to make sense.  
“One that’s three decades old, and we have no idea who or what was involved,” Carey agreed, “who knows, maybe we were stolen. The research might have been abandoned. We don’t know, and the research I’ve done hasn’t brought anything up. So whatever happened… it’s very classified. There’s _nothing_ accessible to the public.”  
“So you’re worried about being found by whoever did the experiment?” Isaac put together, “what about Tay? If they were really after you, Tay would have been easy enough to find.”  
“It’s been over thirty years, they might not know what we look like,” Carey mused, “and I want to keep it that way. I don’t like the idea of being a lab rat.”  
Taylor subconsciously nodded in agreement.  
“So your way of going about this is… what? Just hiding?” Isaac tried to understand, “I mean what’s in it for you guys?”  
“We have lives,” Carey assured, “but the less contact we have with each other, the better. We’ve each kept tabs on where Taylor is on any given tour and made sure we weren’t around. It’s fair enough if someone comes across one of us and says ‘hey you look like that guy from that band’, but another thing entirely if we’re all seen together. So we maintain as little contact as possible and just try and stay out of each other’s way. Our jobs aren’t too ‘out there’ and we’re pretty good at avoiding media interest. I mean I don’t think Colin cares so much sometimes but… I’ve already made a few phone calls to tell him to pull his head in.”  
“Mark’s personality?” Taylor guessed, making Isaac give him a glance.  
“He’s something else entirely,” Carey mused, “we don’t contact him unless we have to.”  
“Great,” Isaac said under his breath.  
“It’s not that bad,” Carey smirked, “the less we all talk, the better. Speaking from experience.”


	5. Part Four

“So what do you do for work?” Taylor asked sometime later.  
“I’m between jobs,” Carey admitted, “but I used to be a research assistant for multiple aquariums in Cali. I did a doctorate in marine biology with a second in human biology and genetics so I have student loans up the wazoo.”  
“Genetics?” Taylor mused, sharing a glance with Isaac.  
“Kinda fitting right?” Carey smiled, “it came with being a twin. I was interested.”  
“So you’re the perfect person to be navigating this whole thing.”  
“So far so good,” he considered, “we haven’t found anyone to take over yet so I’m doing what I can with what I have.”  
“What about Mark?” Isaac asked, “does he have a job?”  
“He’s not really a ‘job’ kind of person,” Carey looked and sounded like he was wording it carefully, “but he gets by.”  
“Did he go to school like you?” Taylor frowned.  
“No,” Carey replied, obviously wanting to leave it at that.  
“How did he get the scar?” Isaac indicated his face.  
Carey paused, before looking him in the eye.  
“I gave it to him,” he revealed.  
“You did?” Taylor frowned, suddenly wondering if he should be more wary.  
“Yes,” Carey looked to him, “back in the late 90’s he started getting this idea in his head that he could use your fame for… certain underhanded activities, should I say. It was getting a bit out of hand and I figured the only way to stop it-“  
“Was to make sure he couldn’t look like Tay?” Isaac’s brow furrowed.  
“Isn’t that a bit extreme?” Taylor looked worried.  
“It went further than I intended,” Carey assured, “we got in a fight and… there was anger involved. I can’t say that I regret doing it, but it certainly didn’t help his view of you any.”  
“It’s a large scar,” Taylor went on.  
“It is, but it does the trick,” Carey blew off, “worth the time in hospital if you ask me considering what he would have been doing otherwise. He’s already been printed by the way so I hope you don’t have a criminal career in mind.”  
“Of course not,” Taylor relented.  
“Good.”  
“Why was he printed?” Isaac was first to ask, “is there anything we should worry about?”  
“Misdemeanours,” Carey blew off, “he hasn’t been in trouble for a long time, so if we keep the Tulsa PD away we should be okay for a while.”  
“Right…” Taylor gave Isaac an awkward look, “we haven’t heard anything on the case.”  
“But we weren’t exactly going to not put in a police report either,” Isaac pointed out.  
“We didn’t know,” Taylor frowned.  
“But would you have kept quiet if he _had_ nearly killed you?” Isaac turned on him, “what if it had been more serious? We couldn’t ignore that.”  
“Like I said,” Carey broke it up, “this is of Mark’s own making.”  
“When are you leaving town? Are you going back to LA?” Taylor asked.  
“Tomorrow,” Carey leant back and folded his arms, “I only came because I was chasing Mark. I honestly hoped we wouldn’t engage but… here we are.”  
“How did you know he was going to be there? Did he say something?”  
“He hinted,” Carey shrugged, “and I put it together. This isn’t the first time he’s tried something but it’s the first time I couldn’t stop him. So… sorry about that.”  
“That is not very reassuring,” Isaac insisted, “not the first time?”  
“It’s not like he’s doing it every day, it’s just once every few years something will set him off,” Carey insisted, before his eyes went to the door.  
Taylor and Isaac heard the key card beep and Taylor stood as the door opened. Isaac was the first to see Mark walk through.  
“They’re still here?” he ignored them, focusing on Carey, “what, you don’t have enough friends at home?”  
“Calm down,” Carey scorned, not moving.  
“Actually it is getting late,” Isaac found it hard to pull his eyes away from the newcomer to put them on Taylor, “I told Nicole I wouldn’t be too late.”  
“Okay,” Taylor nodded, not pulling his eyes from Mark.  
“Where were you?” Carey was asking him.  
“Around. Like there’s anything to do in this town anyway.”  
He pushed past Carey’s legs and went into the bathroom.  
“I think we’ve overstayed our welcome,” Taylor said softly, making Isaac get to his feet.  
“Sorry,” Carey didn’t care to keep his voice down, “probably better to keep this short and sweet anyway.”  
“Did you use all the fucking shampoo again?!”  
“What are you complaining about, you barely have any hair!” Carey hit back.  
Taylor eyed the motel stationery and darted over to it. Carey watched as he took the pen and began writing.  
“Assuming you don’t already have this…” he muttered aloud, “this is my number.”  
“Taylor-“  
“I know you don’t think it’s a good idea, but I don’t want to be caught unawares again,” Taylor looked him in the eye, “and it’s entirely unfair that I’m the only one who doesn’t know what the hell’s going on.”  
“You know now,” Carey scoffed.  
“This doesn’t count! I’ve had five seconds with you, I’ve barely learnt anything!”  
“Actually it’s been four hours,” Isaac checked his watch.  
“Seriously?” Taylor looked over his shoulder.  
“I’ve already shared more than I ever planned to,” Carey insisted, “the very fact that we’ve met like this was an entirely bad idea in my book. We don’t know who’s watching.”  
“That’s a very paranoid approach,” Isaac was already heading for the door.  
“Some of us have to be,” Carey watched after him.  
Taylor finished writing, adding his personal email address to the bottom.  
“Check in with me, please?” his brow furrowed, “I want to know if you find anything more, or… I don’t know. Let me know if I can help somehow.”  
“Like you can help us,” Mark appeared in the doorway to the bathroom with a smirk.  
“It’s just in case,” Taylor shrugged.  
“We’ve been doing fine on our own our whole lives,” Mark insisted.  
“I’m not saying you weren’t.”  
“We don’t _need_ you.”  
“Cool it,” Carey slapped his leg, “we can be civilised, remember? I’m getting sick of having to be your handler.”  
“No one asked you to,” Mark shot him a glare.  
“The universe asked me to so we don’t all end up in jail – or worse,” Carey insisted, “stop being a dick.”  
Mark grunted and disappeared again. Isaac turned his attention to Taylor.  
“That’s you toward the end of a tour,” he said under his breath.  
“It is not,” Taylor scorned.  
“You might wanna…” Carey nodded toward the door.  
“Yes, yes we might,” Isaac agreed wholeheartedly, “it’s been great. Nice to meet you. I’m sure it won’t be the last time. And until then…”  
“Thanks for… everything,” Taylor stepped forward to shake Carey’s hand again, “I hope you don’t become a stranger.”  
“I already am,” Carey mused, “have a good night. Bye Isaac.”  
“Bye,” Isaac waved, eyeing the bathroom before leading the way to the door.

Once both brothers closed the doors of Taylor’s car, they sat in silence for a few minutes.  
“Well that was… odd,” Isaac was the first to speak.  
“Yeah,” Taylor didn’t know what to add.  
Another moment of silence.  
“Okay I know this is really weird and life-altering and all that,” Isaac broke it again, “but I really need to get home.”  
“Yeah, sure, sorry,” Taylor snapped out of it and started the car.  
The drive back to Taylor’s was mostly in silence. When they pulled into the driveway they could see Natalie waiting out front, and Taylor paused again once he’d shut the car off.  
“Are you going to tell her?” Isaac asked.  
“I don’t know,” Taylor was honest, “is it worth it?”  
“Forgive me for saying, but… I get the feeling this might come up again eventually,” Isaac cautioned, “and I for one know that Nicole would not like knowing I’d hidden that from her.”  
“I don’t want the kids to know,” Taylor said straight.  
“I think that’s fair,” Isaac agreed, “what about Zac?”  
“No,” Taylor shook his head, “not right now.”  
Another pause as Natalie folded her arms.  
“And Mom and Dad?” Isaac had to ask.  
Taylor sighed.  
“I need to…” he trailed off, not sure of what he wanted to say.  
He scratched his beard instead.  
“I need to be careful,” he thought aloud, “about how I go about it. Carey said they were adopted, and maybe I was too.”  
“You know that makes no sense, right?” Isaac pulled a face, “I mean there’s no way-“  
“I don’t know what else to think right now,” Taylor insisted, “how else do you explain it?”  
Silence.  
“Exactly.”  
“I don’t have the answers Tay,” Isaac shook his head, “but if Carey doesn’t… maybe our parents don’t either.”  
“There’s only one way to find out,” Taylor finally opened his door.

Isaac quickly said his goodbyes, waved to Natalie, and took his leave. Taylor watched him take off before finally making his way up to where his wife was waiting.  
“You’re late,” she informed him.  
“Sorry,” he replied, looking around to make sure the kids were inside.  
“What’s wrong?” she immediately frowned, “did something happen? Kate said Zac wasn’t happy with the studio work this morning…”  
“Nothing to do with that,” Taylor assured with a smile, “but I think we need to talk.”  
She nodded, obviously worried, before rubbing his arm.  
“Come inside,” she insisted before leading the way.  
The resulting conversation took well until after the kids had started preparing dinner. Natalie was well in denial until at one point she actually called Isaac to confirm. Once it had a chance to properly settle in, she agreed the best course of action would be to speak to his parents at first opportunity.  
But it had to wait until after dinner. Curbing awkward questions from the kids was fun at first, but they soon found other topics to entertain themselves with. Natalie ended up sitting them down with a movie afterward so that Taylor could seek solace in the study once again.

He took three deep breaths before dialling. He really didn’t want to make this call.   
He managed to distract himself from the seriousness by starting to remove the sticky bandage from his forehead in the least painful way he could manage.  
“Hello?”  
“Hey Mom, it’s me,” he winced as part of the bandage gave way, “do you have a moment?”  
“Are you okay?” he could hear the worry in her voice.  
“Fine. I’m just changing bandages,” he insisted, “I need to ask you some things.”  
“Go ahead.”  
He could hear noise in the background but hoped it was just his father or sister not paying attention.  
“I need you to be honest with me,” he bit his lip.  
“Of course. What’s wrong?”  
“Was I adopted?” he came out with before he could chicken out.  
There was a pause on the line before Diana sighed.  
“We’ve been over this before,” she insisted, “of course not. Now why on Earth is this-“  
“Did I have a twin?” he went on without pause.  
Diana’s second hesitation made him frown.  
“Why would you ask such a thing?” he could hear a similar frown in her voice.  
“Just something that happened recently,” he tried to blow over, “it’s brought up a lot of questions, and something like this would explain those.”  
There was another pause on the line and Taylor heard her speak to someone in the background.  
“Mom?” he tried to get her attention again, “why aren’t you saying ‘no’?”  
“Just wait,” she insisted, sounding annoyed.  
He heard what sounded like a door closing before she sighed.  
“Why do you need to know this now?” she asked.  
“Just tell me, please,” he scratched at the healing wound, “you’re not making this any easier.”  
“This isn’t easy for me either,” his mother insisted, “yes, you were a twin.”  
Taylor covered his mouth with his hand, his mind starting to go haywire.  
Was it one of the other two Carey had mentioned?  
“He was stillborn,” Diana went on, bringing him back to reality, “your father and I are the only people who know about him. We didn’t even tell Isaac.”  
“Are you sure?” Taylor’s voice broke a little and he cursed it in his head.  
“I’m sure, we saw him,” Diana’s voice had softened, “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you, but it was a hard time for us.”  
“I’m sorry for bringing it up,” Taylor apologised, regretting that he still didn’t have any real answers despite dredging up some hard memories.


	6. Part Five

“Dammit!” Taylor cursed, immediately sucking on the finger he’d caught on the cymbal.  
“Maybe his mind wasn’t the only thing he lost when he hit his head,” Zac muttered making Isaac roll his eyes.  
“Not even a little bit funny right now,” he insisted, watching Taylor through the window.  
“It was a little funny,” Zac smirked to himself before turning the microphone on, “you okay Tay?”  
“Yeah just give me a minute,” he insisted, shaking the hand out.  
“This is a train wreck,” Zac said after cutting the microphone again, “we haven’t got anything good down in weeks. Did we bring the right brother back from the hospital?”  
“Like your track record is that good?” Isaac defended, trying not to make it obvious that the comment had unnerved him.  
“You know what I mean though, right? Like he hasn’t been the same since the accident,” Zac shot him a glance, “it’s like it threw his whole balance off.”  
“Well we can’t waste any more time on this project or we won’t get it done in time,” Isaac insisted.  
“I know that!” Zac scorned “that’s why I’m worried!”  
“Okay I’m good,” Taylor insisted before hitting the snare as a warm up.  
The brothers watched carefully as he attempted to get this next drum take down. Finally, it was a take he was happy with.  
“Hallelujah,” Zac muttered, ending the recording.  
Isaac turned the microphone on and leant forward.  
“We need to move on,” he insisted, “want to try the Wurly?”  
“Sure,” Taylor stood before removing his headphones and setting them on the seat.  
He made his way to the keyboard in question and tested a few keys.  
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Zac looked to Isaac.  
“If he can’t get this down…” Isaac raised a brow, “then fine, I might agree with you. This should be easy for him.”  
Taylor paused to gather himself before playing the part in question. He managed to get it on the first try.  
“Yes,” Isaac congratulated under his breath.  
“I wasn’t happy with that,” Taylor’s voice came through the microphone, making Isaac hang his head and Zac smirk.  
“We’re ready, go again,” Zac insisted.  
On the second take, his fingers slipped.  
“Dammit.”  
“I think I’m gonna call lunch,” Isaac announced.  
“Wait!” Taylor insisted, “I nearly have this, then it’s done.”  
Zac sighed as he continued. The third take was better than the first.  
“Now can we go?” Zac asked.  
“One more!”  
Without waiting for a response, Taylor played it again. With a similar result. Isaac didn’t bother with the microphone and just opened the door to the studio, ducking his head around to where he could make eye contact.  
“Happy with that?” he hinted.  
“I think so,” Taylor’s eyes darted, “are we in a rush or something?”  
“I’m calling timeout!” Zac insisted, grabbing his jacket from his seat and stepping through the door, “the fumes from the couch are still really strong in here. I’m going for lunch.”  
“Someone is,” Isaac replied to Taylor as Zac ducked past and out the other door.  
“What’s wrong with him?” Taylor frowned, not moving as they heard the outside door open and close.  
“The fumbles are getting to him, that’s all,” Isaac shrugged.  
“I can’t help it,” Taylor frowned, “it’s not any more than normal, right?”  
Isaac held his hand out flat and shook it slightly. Taylor’s lips pursed.  
“It’s not just today,” Isaac insisted as Taylor removed his headphones again, “it’s since the accident. Zac’s just noticed, that’s all.”  
“Ike we can’t tell him.”  
“I’m not saying we should,” he insisted, “I think the fact that someone tried to kill you should be enough explanation. We don’t have to go into who or why.”  
“It’s not just that either,” Taylor winced, leaning against the keyboard.  
“It should be enough explanation,” Isaac repeated himself, pointedly.  
Taylor sighed.  
“Anything else is none of his business, unless you decide to bring him into it. Until then he doesn’t need to know.”  
“I feel bad keeping it from him,” Taylor admitted, “and not just Carey and Mark, but the whole twin thing. Like what else aren’t our parents telling us? You know?”  
“They have their reasons,” Isaac shrugged.  
“I know. I’m just worried.”  
“Not to… sound insensitive or anything,” Isaac began cautiously, “but how long are you going to be worried for?”  
Taylor groaned.  
“It’s been nearly a month,” Isaac pointed out, “we haven’t heard from Carey, Mom and Dad have nothing… it might be time to just get on with your life.”  
“I’m trying,” Taylor insisted, “I swear I’m trying. I’m just… distracted.”  
Isaac nodded his obvious agreement to that.  
“I mean we know Carey and Mark are in LA… but where are the other two? Am I going to run into them on the street somewhere? Are they going to know that I know?”  
“I think if that were a possibility he would have said something,” Isaac reasoned, “he did seem pretty determined to keep everyone away from each other.”  
“And that they paid attention to where we tour. That’s creepy, right?” Taylor looked up for confirmation.  
“This whole thing is creepy!” Isaac used his hands for emphasis, “I mean the idea of multiple Taylors being out there with at least one of them having a homicidal streak towards you?”  
Taylor smirked.  
“Yes, it’s creepy.”  
“I’m not too sure we have to worry about Mark, I feel like Carey would at least warn us now,” Taylor considered, “but I haven’t met the other two. How do I know they aren’t a threat?”  
“Did you get any contact details from Carey?”  
“No,” Taylor admitted.  
“He really doesn’t want to be found.”  
“No,” Taylor agreed.  
There was an awkward moment of silence before Isaac turned to go back in to the sound desk.

Taylor’s phone rang. Quickly pulling it from his pocket, he fleetingly checked the caller before answering. It was an unknown number.  
“Hello?” he asked, seeing the shadow of Isaac grabbing his coat in the hall.  
“Is that Taylor Hanson?”  
Taylor hesitated as Isaac reappeared in the doorway, putting said coat on.  
“It is,” he replied apprehensively.  
“It’s Carey.”  
“Carey?” Taylor locked eyes with his brother, “I thought you weren’t going to use this number.”  
“Mark’s gone,” he sounded out of breath, “I don’t know where, or how, but his place is a mess. I don’t think-“  
The line went silent and Taylor returned Isaac’s frown.   
“Carey?” he tried, “Carey are you there?”  
There were a few seconds of silence before a loud clatter came through, sounding as though Carey had dropped his phone. Taylor stared at his in surprise when the call cut out.  
“What is it?” Isaac asked.  
“I’m not sure,” Taylor replied, looking through his recent call list and trying to call Carey back.  
It rang twice before the call was picked up.  
“Hello? Carey?” he frowned, “what’s going on? Are you guys okay?”  
More silence on the line. This time followed by a feeling of dread in Taylor’s gut.  
He hung up.  
“Everything okay?” Isaac asked, making him look up.  
Taylor grit his teeth, his mind racing.  
“Mark’s missing,” he said, “the call cut out. I don’t know what’s going on.”  
“You think he might be coming after you again?” Isaac was officially worried.   
“He sounded scared. Panicked, even,” Taylor’s brow furrowed, “what else could it be?”  
“We should go,” Isaac insisted, going back into the sound room to grab his bag.  
Taylor paused only long enough to make sure he hadn’t left anything turned on in the main room before following. He grabbed his things and followed Isaac outside.  
“Do you know where he was calling from?” Isaac asked.  
“He didn’t say,” Taylor shook his head.  
“So he could be in Tulsa,” Isaac realised, stopping before he could open his car door.  
“Maybe,” Taylor frowned.  
“So…” Isaac’s brow rose, “maybe leaving isn’t such a good idea?”  
“Maybe,” Taylor’s expression didn’t change.  
They both froze, torn between either option.  
“Ike what are we doing?!” Taylor broke the silence to exclaim.  
“Dammit,” Isaac cursed under his breath, looking either way down the street before heading back to the studio door.  
Taylor rubbed his face before following. Once he was inside Isaac closed and locked the door behind him.  
“We bunker down,” he insisted, “pretend it’s a tornado. We don’t leave until we hear from Carey again.”  
“What if he doesn’t call back? I tried to reach him and I couldn’t,” Taylor stood back.  
Isaac stepped past to go and make sure the other doors were all locked.  
“If the call cut out I’m sure he’ll try again!” he called back.  
Taylor took a look out the window, grimaced, and followed his brother. They both put their things back where they’d gotten them from and Isaac took his coat off again.  
“For now, we’re not going to worry,” he insisted, “we can just… watch TV.”  
“Feeling pretty worried with being on lockdown and all,” Taylor insisted.  
“We’re _not going to worry_ ,” Isaac repeated pointedly, keeping busy by setting up the projector, “let’s just settle in, and wait.”

A good half hour passed without Carey’s call. Beers had been drunk in the meantime, considering they had no food anywhere. Their senses were still on high alert however, so when someone knocked on the back door both brothers nearly jumped out of their skins.  
“Oh shit,” Taylor put his head in his hand.  
“We forgot about Zac,” Isaac realised, hearing him yelling outside.  
He went to undo the bolts on the door while Taylor stayed on the couch.  
“What the hell?!” Zac had already been in a bad mood before this.  
“Sorry,” Isaac ushered him inside, “we had a bit of a… never mind. You didn’t bring any food with you, did you?”  
“No,” Zac was confused, “what, you didn’t go out? Why are you locking the door?”  
Isaac hesitated, debating whether to say something or not. Deciding it was more Taylor’s place, he simply turned and headed back into the sound room.  
“Really. Silent treatment now,” Zac followed, annoyed.  
“Hey,” Taylor looked up from his spot as Zac came through.  
He paused in the doorway just looking over the scene.   
“Uh…” he looked like he had too much material to work with and couldn’t decide what to say first.  
“Take a seat,” Taylor insisted as Isaac stopped the projector, “we need to talk.”

“You can’t be serious,” Zac looked to Isaac for confirmation, “you can’t honestly expect me to believe that Tay has an evil twin somewhere that’s trying to kill him.”  
“Despite it already happening once?” Isaac pointed out.  
“Since when is the car Tay couldn’t even identify being driven by a damn twin?!”  
“I could identify it,” Taylor corrected, “it wasn’t me that made the call to Ike. It was Carey.”  
“Carey?”  
“He brought me back to the studio and called for help once he knew Mark was no longer a threat.”  
“Mark?”  
“This will go a lot faster if you don’t keep interrupting,” Isaac insisted.  
“This doesn’t make sense!” Zac insisted, “how could there possibly be… what, _five_ identical twins out there? Tay wasn’t adopted!”  
“We don’t know,” Taylor insisted.  
“The other two _were_ adopted,” Isaac added, “and… we don’t know about the others, Carey wouldn’t tell us.”  
“Convenient,” Zac nodded, as Isaac suddenly jumped.  
He went for his phone as if it had just vibrated.  
“I can’t prove any of this to you without Carey’s backup, or unless Mark actually shows up here,” Taylor tried to reason, “I’m just asking you to believe us for now.”  
“He doesn’t have to,” Isaac said absently, scrolling through his phone before holding it out.  
“What’s that?” Taylor asked as Zac took it.  
He saw his face contort before touching the screen himself.  
“I took photos of Mark as he was leaving the motel,” Isaac admitted, “I have your proof.”  
“What the hell…?” Zac whispered to himself.  
Taylor jumped from the couch and made his way to Zac’s side. He felt like he needed the confirmation that Mark existed himself.   
“That’s a good shot,” he reached over to the screen, “you can see the scar and everything.”  
“That’s why I asked about it,” Isaac agreed.  
“This can’t be real,” Zac denied immediately.  
“We are not that good at Photoshop,” Isaac insisted, “and it’s obviously in my camera folder, it’s got the date and everything.”  
“That’s Mark, he’s the one that was driving the car,” Taylor was swiping through them as Zac covered his mouth, “did you get any of Carey?”  
“No I thought that’d be too obvious.”  
“Shame you weren’t at the campus the day before then.”  
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Zac muttered, making Taylor back off.  
“You can’t tell anyone,” Isaac quickly made sure.  
“Who knows about this?”  
“Nat does,” Taylor thought, “that’s it. I mean I called Mom to double check I wasn’t adopted but didn’t tell her anything.”  
“Are you sure that was a good idea?” Zac looked up, “I mean maybe she could solve this?”  
“Carey doesn’t want it getting out,” Isaac replied for him, “the less people that know, the better.”  
“Yeah, and he doesn’t want me having contact with any of them,” Taylor agreed, “his call today was the first time I’d heard from him.”  
“What did he say exactly?” Zac frowned.  
“That Mark was missing, and…” Taylor frowned as he thought, “his place was a mess, or something. I don’t remember.”  
“His place was a mess?” Isaac looked to him, “so… what, he lost his temper?”  
“Maybe. He certainly has one,” Taylor shrugged.  
“I need a breather,” Zac insisted, handing Isaac’s phone back before getting to his feet.  
Isaac and Taylor were silent as he left the room.  
“Was telling him a good idea?” Taylor looked to be having second thoughts.  
“Too late now,” Isaac insisted, putting his phone away.

“I’ve gotta get home, it’s getting kinda late. And we’re not really doing anything productive,” Zac insisted, long after dark.  
“Yeah, sure,” Taylor looked up from where he was back on the couch.  
“Let us know if you see anything weird outside,” Isaac insisted as he began walking him to the door.  
“I’ll call you when I get home,” Zac promised, “bye Tay.”  
“Bye!” he called after them.  
“Is he seriously okay with all of this?” Zac said under his breath once he was sure Taylor couldn’t hear.  
“You heard him recording,” Isaac shrugged, “you tell me.”  
“Right…” Zac suddenly put two and two together.  
“Maybe we should think about taking a break?” Isaac suggested, “we can always push everything back, saying Tay needs more time to recover. It was pretty public.”  
“Maybe we should,” Zac agreed, “talk about it tomorrow?”  
“Sure,” Isaac opened the door for him, “good night.”  
“Night,” he waved as he headed to his truck.  
Isaac waited to make sure he got in before taking a look down the street and closing the door again.  
Halfway back he ran into Taylor.  
“Maybe we should take our leave too,” he suggested, “we can’t really stay here all night. I mean we could, but I know at least two ladies who wouldn’t approve.”  
“Are you okay with that?” Isaac made sure, walking past regardless, “do you want me to follow you or anything?”  
“No. I think if Mark were already here Carey would have made himself known by now,” Taylor reasoned, “I should be okay.”  
“I’ll take your word for it,” Isaac mused, “we’d better clean up first.”  
They quickly collected up the many beer bottles and cans from around the sound desk, putting them in a single bag ready to take outside. Isaac began to pack up the projector again while Taylor slipped his jacket on and grabbed some other rubbish before taking the bag to the back door.  
He undid the bolts one-handed and pushed it open, stepping out into the back alley. The door closed behind him as he fumbled with the key for the bin before catching movement out the corner of his eye.  
Turning to the right, he saw a white van backed into the alley and parked behind the business next door. There was a man – obviously not Mark – who seemed to be fiddling with one of the back tires.  
Not recognising him as anyone related to the bakery owner, he took a step to the side.  
“Can we help you?” he asked, not even having to raise his voice.  
The man looked up and pulled himself to his feet.  
“Did you blow a tire?” Taylor suggested before hearing footsteps behind him.  
Turning too late, everything suddenly went dark.   
He dropped the trash bag in order to grab for whatever was covering his face, but the person had already pulled it tight around his neck. He could tell his shouts were already muffled as he began to fight whoever held him.  
With large arms holding his own tightly to his sides, he couldn’t deflect the sting he felt in the side of his neck. As he was dragged toward the van he could already feel himself getting dizzy, and the last thing he heard were the van doors closing behind him.


	7. Part Six

Taylor heard hums when he came to. He still couldn’t see anything, and soon realised the cloth was still over his head. As soon as he tried to raise his hands to pull it off however, someone took hold of his right arm and held it down again.  
That made him realise his wrists were tied, and he soon realised he was moving. He was laying on something hard – like the ambulance gurney – being wheeled along what sounded like tile.  
“Where am I?” his voice croaked, taking note that the person hadn’t let go of his arm.  
The panic was rising in his chest in direct proportion to how fast he was waking up.   
He suddenly heard voices in the distance, and realised they were getting closer. It was followed by a metallic rattle before rough hands took hold of both his arms and pulled him up.  
He was dragged to his feet and pulled to the right. He heard what sounded like chains clattering before the person to his left started counting down from three. When he reached one Taylor was suddenly let go, and a loud bang followed.  
Taylor’s hands immediately went to the hood, finding the tie at his throat and quickly undoing it before pulling it free.  
He had to squint at the brightness of the room, and nearly lost his balance right away.  
“Shit,” he heard someone curse nearby, “they got the rock star. That’s it for the rest of us then.”  
Taylor rubbed his eyes as they tried to focus, first catching sight of what looked like chicken wire in front of him.  
Not just in front of him, but _surrounding_ him. The area looked like a small cell, complete with a low bed and what would have been enough room to squeeze another in. The back wall was white tile and the door was made from heavy steel bars that were heavily bolted closed.  
As he looked at the door he soon caught sight of someone in a similar situation directly across from him. The cell was identical, but this one held Mark.  
He was stalking the door like an angry cat.  
“Mark?” Taylor frowned, wanting to make sure.  
“You’ve met?” came a voice from Mark’s right.  
Taylor’s eyes darted. Sitting on the bed in another identical cell was someone – obviously not either Mark or Carey – who looked just like him. Wearing dirty work boots, jeans and a trucker cap.  
He soon realised it was an entire row of cells on either side of the corridor. There was no one in the one to his left (or Mark’s), but laying on the bed in the one to his right was obviously Carey. He was clearly unconscious. Taylor barely had time to process that before catching sight of the man in the next cell pacing with his arms folded. His hair was slightly longer than Taylor’s and he wore a business suit, but he was glaring in Taylor’s direction.  
“Unfortunately,” Mark muttered in response to the one sitting.  
“What’s going on?” Taylor asked a little louder.  
“They found us,” Mark was still pacing, his eye on the lock on his door.  
“Had to happen eventually,” the other shrugged.  
“Who are they?” Taylor dropped the hood onto the bed before looking over the ties on his wrists.  
It looked like a simple cable tie, but it was already cutting into his skin.  
“I guess we’ll find out. Taylor, I take it?”  
“Yeah,” he made momentary eye contact.  
“Jesse,” he introduced, “and the sour one in the corner is Colin.”  
Taylor’s eyes went to the other pacer. He was still looking toward Taylor but remained silent. It only added to Taylor’s nerves.  
“So how’d they nab you?” Jesse was trying to strike up conversation, “I got hit over the head.”  
Taylor was about to reply when he got distracted by Mark. He’d paused in his pacing, clenched his fists, and just when it looked like his face was about to burst… the tie on his wrists gave way with a snap.  
“…Holy shit,” Jesse’s eyebrows rose, seeing what he’d done.  
Mark ignored them and after rubbing his wrists out simply continued pacing.  
“Okay I got this…” Jesse took a deep breath before clenching his own fists.  
Taylor watched on curiously as Jesse’s face also turned red with the pressure, almost turning purple before he let his breath go.  
“Fuck. I don’t got this. That’s not fair.”  
“You’re weak,” Mark said straight.  
“Oh screw you.”  
“How long have you been here?” Taylor asked, attempting to break the tie with his teeth.  
“Uh… I got here first, I’ve been here maybe a day?” Jesse guessed, “Colin got in this morning. You three are new arrivals tonight.”  
“Carey called and tried to warn me,” Taylor shot him a glance, “they must have been after him. The call cut out.”  
“They brought him in maybe a half hour before you,” Jesse’s eyes went to Carey’s sleeping form.  
“Why is this taking so long?” they heard Colin mutter as he continued to pace, Taylor taken a little aback by his voice.  
It was slightly different to the ones he’d heard already.  
“Any idea where we are?” Taylor thought to ask, trying to see how far the cells ran to the left.  
He counted another three beds before another white wall.  
“Nope. Hit over the head, remember?”  
“We’ve all lost time. We could be fucking anywhere,” Mark was getting angrier with every passing second.  
A groan from Carey’s direction distracted them all from taking it further.  
“This’ll be fun,” Jesse said under his breath, staring as he waited.  
Taylor watched as Carey’s head rolled to the side and he struggled to open his eyes. It didn’t take long for his eyes to fall on Taylor, and when they did he shot up on the bed.  
“No,” he gasped out, blinking hard as his eyes adjusted to the light.  
“Carey?” Jesse said softly, “calm down bro.”  
“No, no, no,” he was frantically rubbing his eyes as he pulled himself to his feet.  
He stumbled, almost falling back onto the bed.  
“Hey,” Taylor thought he’d try, being right next to him, “calm down. We’re okay.”  
“For now,” Mark grumbled.  
“Not helping,” Jesse shot him a glare.  
“This can’t be happening,” Carey was already pacing, twisting his wrists in an effort to loosen his tie, “I was careful. We were all careful!”  
“It was probably Taylor,” Mark’s eyes were on him.  
“I didn’t do anything!” Taylor defended, “I had no way of contacting anyone!”  
“But I bet you told people, didn’t you?” Mark glared, “who did you tell? The cops?”  
“No, I didn’t,” Taylor scorned, “but if I had, whose fault would that have been?!”  
“Wait, Mark was the one who put you in hospital?” Jesse looked between them before chuckling, “Mark you fucked up.”  
“If Taylor didn’t say anything then it wasn’t Mark,” Carey insisted, moving over to the door so he could get a better look at his brother, “how did they get you? Your place was a mess.”  
“I was asleep on the couch and they broke in,” Mark admitted, “anything that was broken I broke on their heads.”  
“Sweet,” Jesse whispered to himself.  
“How long have we been here? How long have I been out?” Carey drilled.  
“You’ve only been here a couple of hours,” Jesse replied for him, “no idea what day it is so I can’t say how long you were out. There’s a clock on the wall at that end.”  
Jesse pointed to his left, Carey’s right. Carey followed the line seeing an analog clock above a steel door. The time was just after eleven.  
“AM or PM?” he asked.  
“PM,” Jesse confirmed.  
“But what time zone?” Taylor’s brow furrowed.  
Jesse paused, pursing his lips.  
“Okay that one I can’t answer. Good call.”  
“My watch says one,” Colin spoke up, still pacing, “which is Central. Which means we’re in Pacific.”  
“Can you sit down? You’re making me dizzy,” Jesse frowned in his direction.  
Colin only glared back, otherwise ignoring him. Jesse rolled his eyes.  
“I was being chased around 10am,” Carey shook his head, “that’s a lot of time unaccounted for.”  
“Were they after you when you called me?” Taylor asked, making Carey look back at him.  
“I don’t think they expected me to turn up at Mark’s,” he admitted, “they weren’t ready for it. I got away but I lost my cell.”  
“I wasn’t taken until after dark – Central time,” Taylor gave Colin a glance, “I’m only missing a few hours.”  
“If it’s still the same day,” Jesse pointed out, “I don’t think we’ll get any answers until someone starts talking. _If_ they start talking.”  
“If?” Taylor could feel his nerves spiking again.  
Jesse shrugged.  
“I’ve been here at least twenty-four hours and nothing yet,” he shook his head, “maybe they were waiting to collect the set, or maybe they’re just going to get on with it.”  
“On with what?” Carey demanded, getting the impression Jesse knew more than he was letting on.  
Jesse huffed a sigh.  
“Well not to be a killjoy or anything,” he pulled a face, “but I’m pretty sure this is the part where we all die.”  
Taylor gulped at that.  
“And get dissected,” he continued in the pause, “like frogs. Big, human-sized human-shaped frogs.”  
Carey’s hands went to his head as he tried to keep himself calm. Taylor just kept trying to bite through the tie on his wrists, worried already at the state his skin was in beneath it.  
Before anyone could retort Jesse’s conclusion, the door to Taylor’s left/Mark’s right opened with an ominous clang. All eyes bar Colin’s went to the corridor where another trolley was being wheeled in.  
“Another one?” Jesse frowned, getting to his feet for the first time.  
“I don’t know of any others,” Carey admitted, seeing the person’s legs as they got closer.  
He was wearing flip flops and cargo shorts with a flannel shirt. He was also obviously unconscious.  
Taylor, Jesse, Mark and Carey all watched with bated breath as he was taken through and the door to the cell on Jesse’s other side was opened.  
“Can somebody tell us what’s going on? Please?” Carey attempted to engage the men with him, “how long until we can get some answers? How long do we have to stay here?!”  
He was ignored.  
“Who’s running this?!” his voice rose as their newest subject had to be carried into the cell and laid onto the bed.  
Once he was down they removed the hood. No one was surprised to see his face, though his hair was about the same length as Colin’s and his skin was a lot paler. Almost sickly.  
One of the men with him set something onto the bed beside his head before they turned to leave.  
“Hey!” Carey was clutching the bars of his door as they locked the one opposite, “either talk to us, or send someone who will!”  
One of them smirked as they began to head back toward the door at the opposite end, but had to jump when Mark suddenly hit his own bars causing a loud bang. He stared down the man that had smirked at his brother before both men disappeared with the trolley again.

Once they were gone, Jesse immediately went to the wire connecting his cell to the newcomer’s.   
“Is he okay?” Carey asked when he noticed.  
“Can’t tell,” Jesse admitted, looking him over, “he looks sick though.”  
“What did they leave there?”  
“Looks like glasses,” Jesse admitted, “does anyone else wear glasses?”  
“Sometimes,” Taylor admitted.  
“We don’t,” Carey answered for Mark, “though I know my eyes probably aren’t what they should be.”  
“How long until he wakes up?” Taylor asked, just trying to stay distracted.  
“Carey took forever, Mark was fast. Depends how long ago he was sedated,” Jesse shook his head.  
Taylor flinched as he managed to break part of the plastic tie apart. Not enough to free his hands, but enough to give him hope that he could. He kept going.  
“If we don’t know who that guy is,” Mark pointed in the newcomer’s direction, “that means he’s completely unrelated to any one of us. How the fuck did they find us all?”  
Carey rubbed his face, his mind racing.  
“Maybe they never lost sight of us to begin with,” Jesse considered.  
“Then why now?” Carey was back to panicking, “why wait all this time? It doesn’t make sense!”  
“None of this makes sense, I mean why do we even exist?” Jesse shrugged.


	8. Part Seven

Jesse jumped from his bed when he heard a groan from the cell next door a few hours later.  
“Hey!” he called out, grabbing Carey and Taylor’s attention from across the room.  
The main lights had gone out soon after the sixth man’s arrival, but the only one who’d settled onto his bed had been Colin. Carey and Taylor had been talking, and it was becoming more and more obvious to Taylor that Carey’s worst nightmare was in the process of coming true.  
They watched as Jesse slid his fingers through the gaps in the wire, his eyes on the man’s form as he slowly woke. It didn’t take long before he’d gulped and pushed himself up on the bed.  
“Where am I?” he asked, his voice quiet.  
“What’s your name?” Jesse asked, making him jump.  
He looked up to see Jesse practically standing over him and his face somehow managed to pale further than it already was.  
“Taylor?” he asked.  
Taylor and Carey shared a glance before Carey got to his feet.  
“Not quite,” Jesse responded, “what’s your name, man?”  
He’d squinted and rubbed his eyes, before catching sight of the frames that had been beside his head. Gladly reaching for them he slipped his glasses on before pushing himself up properly.  
“Alexander,” he said softly once he’d stabilised.  
“Hey Alex, I’m Jesse,” he introduced, “do you feel okay?”  
“Jesse Musgrove?”  
Jesse’s eyes shot to Carey. He only stared back.  
“You know who I am?” he frowned as Alex sat himself back on the bed, kicking off his flip flops and shyly hugging his knees to his chest.  
When he lifted his head again, he finally worked out Jesse wasn’t the only one there.  
“How do you know who I am?” Jesse pressed him.  
He’d locked eyes with Carey instead.  
“I think I know who all of you are,” Alex admitted.

“How?” Carey fired off, “how do you know who we are? I didn’t find you.”  
“You think you were the only one who noticed a similarity between yourself and him,” Mark pointed between Carey and Taylor.  
“It’s true,” Alex looked between them, already adjusting his glasses, “I did.”  
“But how did you find us?” Carey demanded as Jesse stood back, “I’ve been looking for _years_ , and I never found you.”  
“I made sure you couldn’t,” Alex’s eyes went to him again.  
“That’s not creepy at all,” Jesse rolled his eyes, taking a seat on his bed again.  
He froze as the lights came back on, as if his movement had caused it. A groan came from Colin’s direction.  
“Is there another one?” Taylor’s brow furrowed.  
“How many of us did you find?” Carey demanded as Alex hugged himself.  
His eyes were to the door he’d been brought through as it opened for the second time since Taylor’s arrival. When Carey caught sight of the man in a white coat with a clipboard leading the way through, he backed away from his door.  
“Your attention please,” he announced, making Colin groan again as he sat up.  
Mark was back to stalking the door.  
The man paused between Mark and Taylor’s cells where he had a satisfactory view of all six prisoners.   
“It’s great to see you all here. It truly is.”  
“And where is here?” Mark’s voice was low.  
“My name is Doctor Morris,” Mark was ignored, “and I’ll be the one taking care of you during your stay.”  
“What do you want?” Carey was staring as Taylor shifted his legs from his bed.  
“We’ve been trying to find you for a very long time,” Morris looked Carey in the eye, as if to be genuine, “it’s been thirty three years since you all disappeared from our radar. We’d simply like to know how you’ve lived your lives over the past three decades. You aren’t all in the public eye of course.”  
He gave Taylor a smile which only served to put him further on edge.  
“…And of course what - if any - health issues you may have had to grow up with.”  
“Were we stolen?” Mark demanded as Jesse looked like he was starting to pray.  
“It’s irrelevant to the current study,” Morris assured.  
“It’s a simple enough question. Yes or no,” Carey backed his brother.  
Morris sighed and visibly grit his teeth.   
“We hope that you find your accommodations sufficient for as long as these tests take. We hope to have you back home in no lesser state as soon as possible,” he went on.  
“Oh thank God,” Jesse muttered, eyes going to the ceiling.  
“What kind of tests?” Taylor spoke up, surprised no one else had asked.  
“Basic medical,” Morris responded amiably, “and just a few questions. This shouldn’t be hard for any of you.”  
“I decline.”  
All eyes shot to where Colin was now standing at his door, his eyes on Morris. His arms were folded and he looked determined.  
“I’m afraid that isn’t an option,” Morris looked intrigued, slowly moving through the cells toward his.  
“Under the United States Constitutional Amendments 5 and 6 I have the right to remain silent and to reveal no personal information about myself or my activities without either my express consent or the presence of a lawyer of my choice. I cannot be interviewed without a defence.”  
“You’re not on trial,” Morris tilted his head.  
“Under Amendment 5 I also have the right to reveal no self-incriminating evidence, in this case biological,” Colin was staring him down, “you need to let me go.”  
“We don’t,” Morris assured, a small smile on his face, “in fact, your ability to leave this place highly depends on your co-operation with our research.”  
Taylor and Carey shared a worried glance as Mark kept his eye on Colin.  
“Then I have to inform you that you’re implying a violation of my Fifth Amendment right in regards to my freedom to act under no charge. In this case, you’re blackmailing me with my freedom in exchange for my biological data which I have not consented to giving.”  
“Correct,” Morris smiled, before turning to walk back.  
“You can _not_ hold me here!” Colin’s voice rose, “this is unconstitutional and I will sue every single person involved in this entire _process_!”  
“We’ll start with something simple,” Morris assured the other five as he took up his former place, “a little quiz, followed by some photographs. Then we’ll take some blood work and other samples, and we can start to send you boys home.”  
“How soon can we start?” Taylor asked.  
“I like your attitude,” Morris pointed to Taylor approvingly, “if all goes well, first thing this morning. The sooner we start, the sooner you can be on your way.”  
“When do we eat?” Jesse asked, “I’ve been here a long time.”  
“I’ll send someone in shortly,” Morris promised, “and we’ll get those wrists freed as well.”  
Taylor sighed in relief at that.  
Morris promptly left, the door closing behind him with a heavy clang.   
“Anyone else notice that there’s only three of us with our hands tied?” Jesse’s brow rose, “because I did.”  
“What did you do?!” Carey demanded, looking in Alex’s direction, “if you’re the only connection between the six of us, you had to be the one to lead them to us!”  
“I don’t know,” Alex looked worried, “I don’t think I did anything.”  
“It’s not going to change that we’re here now,” Taylor tried to reason as Colin sat on his bed again, still fuming.  
“How did you find us?!” Carey wasn’t letting it go.  
In the pause that followed, Alex visibly pulled himself together enough to respond.  
“I found medical records,” he admitted, his voice still soft and hard for Taylor to hear from his distance, “it took a while but I found them.”  
“Medical records,” Carey confirmed aloud, “how? How did you get access to those?”  
“I…” Alex looked between Carey and Jesse, both eyes on him, “…I don’t wanna say.”  
Carey rolled his eyes and turned to sit on his bed again.   
“Were you doing something illegal?” Mark asked pointedly.  
“I don’t wanna say,” Alex looked toward him.  
“I’d say that’s a yes,” Jesse mediated.

Within the hour they’d been given their first meal. It was a strict process which involved each man standing against his back wall as the door was opened and a tray set inside the cell, but the only one they had any problem with was Mark who eventually did comply. Taylor, Carey and Jesse’s wrists were freed through the bars once their cells had been locked again. They all ate quickly and hungrily.   
The doctor appeared as if on cue the moment the last person – Alex – was done. He and his accompanying team member stopped at Taylor’s door as he readied some paperwork.  
“The first part will be painless,” he announced, making sure all six could hear, “but we’ll make sure to get the second part over with as swiftly as possible.”  
“Why do you need our bloodwork?” Carey had his arms folded, “shouldn’t you already have that if we’re supposed to be genetically identical?”  
“No one said you were identical,” Morris didn’t bother looking up as he scanned a list on his clipboard.  
Carey locked eyes with Mark, then gave Taylor a glance.  
“How can we not be?” his eyes narrowed.  
“Would you come to the door please?” Morris requested of Taylor, summoning him with his pointer finger.  
Taylor grit his teeth but stood from the bed and made his way over. The sooner it was over, the sooner he could get back home. Everyone had to be worried sick.  
“For documentation purposes we’ll be referring to you as client ‘C-1’, but I’d like you to state your full name for the record.”  
Taylor eyed his colleague, seeing a voice recorder readily in his hand. Taylor cleared his throat.  
“Jordan Taylor Hanson,” he responded clearly.  
“Your known birth date?”  
“March 14th, 1983.”  
“Your parents’ names?”  
“Why would you need those?” Carey asked, “if we were all adopted out, what relevance does it have?”  
“We don’t believe all of you were – adopted, that is,” Morris offered him a glance, “and we hold a particular interest for any of you who might believe otherwise.”  
“What’s that?” Taylor frowned, suddenly a lot more wary.  
“If any of you continue to be in contact with your birth parents, for example,” Morris was still speaking in a friendly tone, “they would have been involved in the original genetic experiment. They may be able to help us figure out what went wrong and indeed – how you all disappeared.”  
Taylor took a step back from the door, suddenly wondering if he should keep answering questions. If they worked out that he hadn’t been adopted… would they go after his parents?  
He was suddenly torn between protecting his parents and the need to get back to his own children.  
“C-1, can you tell me your parents’ full names please?”  
Carey and Jesse shared a look, both of them again on edge. Mark’s moving shadow in the background was distracting.  
Taylor’s mind raced, but he knew he was in a bind. Even if he didn’t tell them he knew the information would be easy enough for them to find. All they’d need in his case was a quick Google search.  
“Clarke Walker Hanson and Diana Francis Hanson,” he gave in.  
“Okay…” Morris was writing, “your current occupation and any previous occupations or schooling?”  
“I was home-schooled,” Taylor took a breath, “occupation is musician and… entrepreneur. We have multiple projects.”  
“When was the last time you saw a doctor, and what was the reason?”


	9. Part Eight

The questions continued for a long time, seeming to become more and more thorough. They were indeed mostly related to biology, sometimes drifting into generic lifestyle. Taylor questioned the option to not reveal personal details about his kids, and Morris relented that their ages and genders would be sufficient.  
Once they were we done, they moved on to Carey. Formally known as ‘C-2’.  
Taylor learnt that his and Mark’s birthday was a few weeks later, on April 15th. Their mother had died when they were toddlers and they’d been raised by their father in California. Carey didn’t have any children but he had a fiancé who he refused to name. He later admitted her name was Emma, but wouldn’t provide a surname.  
They designated Colin as ‘C-3’ but he refused to answer their questions.  
Alex offered everything freely. His birthday fell on March 24th, and he had dropped out of high school in the 90’s to do a home school course and continue other avenues of education. It didn’t take long for the others to realise he was a recluse. He suffered more ailments than anyone else so far, including allergies no one else appeared to have.   
Jesse’s birthday was two days after Taylor’s on March 16th. He’d grown up on a ranch in Arkansas before moving south to Louisiana to be with a girlfriend. They’d since married and been trying for kids for the past few years unsuccessfully. He worked as a mechanic for a small car dealership which made just enough money to get by.  
Mark picked and chose what questions to answer, and Carey ended up filling in the blanks. Much to Mark’s annoyance. The main difference between their background checks being that where Carey had concentrated on his schooling Mark had completely dropped out mid-way through his sophomore year.  
Once they’d finished questioning Mark, Morris had his assistant fetch more help. Taylor stood again when he realised his turn was coming around again but he was once again instructed to stand and face the back wall.   
He was starting to feel very much like he was in jail, but he complied. He kept his hands flat against the wall as Morris made his way in, followed by an orderly with a trolley. The trolley held medical supplies and a cheap digital camera. Once they’d set themselves up and had the door locked again behind them, Morris instructed him to turn around.   
They started with recording his height and weight before taking photos of his front and side profile. They used a printed scale to take photos of the level of tanning on his arms. They used a special ocular device to get a high definition photo of his left eye. Acne and mole spots were paid special attention, and they took various hair samples. Any defining scars were also photographed before he was asked to sit on the bed and roll up his right sleeve.  
“Is this it?” Carey asked from the next cell as Taylor just removed his jacket altogether, “after the samples we can go?”  
“After we make sure they are viable, yes,” Morris assured, taking a seat beside Taylor and readying a needle.  
“How long will that take?” he asked.  
“By the time we get through with all of you, probably the better part of the day I’m afraid,” Morris readied a swab before sterilising the nape of his elbow, “you will hopefully have been here no longer than twenty-four hours. Of course Mr Reis over there may have to stay a little longer.”  
Taylor looked over his shoulder to where Colin was laying on his bed again, staring at the ceiling.  
“And this is it, right?” Carey’s eyes narrowed, “you won’t come after us again?”  
“I doubt there will be a need, unless something unforeseen appears in your genealogy.”  
“Like what?” Taylor asked.  
He flinched as the needle went in and Morris swiftly filled the tube.  
“I don’t know yet, I guess we’ll find out,” he offered a smile.  
It wasn’t reassuring at all.  
“Does it have something to do with us not being identical?” Carey pressed, “will we be told what the variations are? I mean what’s the point in being visually identical but not genetically? And how can that even happen?”  
“It all stems from the original sample and how it was managed,” Morris revealed as he passed the blood to his assistant who promptly and carefully labelled it, “I will personally be very surprised if the original plan, well… went to plan. Perhaps in the case of you and Marcus however, it may prove different. Being our only set of surviving natural twins. There were more of you of course, but we had an unfortunate number of both stillborns and infantile deaths. The research itself was in its infancy, you understand.”  
“But we were copied from somewhere, right?” Carey went on.  
“So there’s an original somewhere,” Mark added.  
He’d stopped pacing and was just staring through the bars. Morris sighed to himself as he readied a swab for a saliva sample.  
“You’re partly correct,” he offered, “the supplied genetic material was modified from its original state and then duplicated in its own right. The original sample was lost just as you were.”  
“So there’s somebody out there that we were… made from?” Taylor tried to get his head around.  
“We referred to them as Baby Zero. They were only an infant at the time themselves,” Morris conceded, “his parents were high level members of our original research facility and volunteered for the experiment. Unfortunately along with all of you…”  
He carefully took Taylor’s sample and packaged it just like the blood.  
“…They also disappeared thirty-three years ago.”  
“You think they’re responsible?” Carey was putting two and two together.  
“I think that’s for law enforcement to decide, if we ever do catch up with them,” Morris reasoned, now readying something metallic, “I doubt any of you need to worry yourselves. It took long enough for us to find you, so we expect your original will be long in the wind.”  
He used the scalpel-like instrument to scrape down Taylor’s arm, collecting a tiny sample of the dead skin that lay on top. Once the sample was packaged with everything else Morris stood from the bed.  
“One down, five to go,” he smiled again, “please remain seated as we leave.”  
Taylor nodded, rubbing his arm as he watched them pack up. Everything they’d taken from him was whisked away through the steel door as though they were worried about it contaminating the next collection.

Carey weighed less than Taylor but they were the same height. He seemed to have more scars. Morris was intrigued with something to do with his eye but didn’t say anything aloud.   
Colin again refused to be tested.  
Alex weighed less again but was a quarter inch shorter than the first two. The most obvious difference quickly became the colour of his skin. He wasn’t pale because he was sickly, it was just because he hadn’t seen nearly as much sun as the others. There was clear damage to his eyes told by his need for fulltime glasses, but Morris didn’t seem surprised by that.  
Jesse was shorter again but weighed the most. They could all tell it was mostly muscle despite his earlier failure to break his tie. He was also the most tanned, and the only one with obvious spots of grey hair. Most of his scars were on his hands.  
Mark’s facial scar was studied thoroughly, and he was visibly growing more frustrated the longer it took. Neither he nor Carey offered the story on how it came to be. Mark turned out to be the tallest of all of them but weighed the same as Taylor. Every piercing – and as they found out, tattoo – was photographed and documented. 

By the time he was finally done, Morris broke for lunch and they were also all fed again. But Carey was confused.  
“He said we could go,” he insisted to the servers as he was told to stand facing the wall again, “why can’t we just go now? He’s done!”  
“Doctor Morris is on break, you’re his responsibility,” one of them responded in a bored tone.  
“This is bullshit!”  
“It can’t be much longer,” Taylor was mostly speaking out loud in order to console himself.  
“Look around Taylor,” Carey scorned, “what part of this is reassuring? We’re locked in here like lab rats!”  
“Frogs,” came Jesse’s voice from the other side.  
“Shut the fuck up,” Mark muttered.  
“Or else what?” Jesse scorned, before jumping as Mark suddenly hit the wire between them.  
Jesse groaned inwardly, annoyed that he’d fallen for it.  
“Quit joking around.”  
“It’s a coping mechanism,” Jesse scorned, “don’t judge me.”  
“Why would they let us go?” Alex asked, visibly more nervous than the rest of them, “when they’ve been looking for so long?”  
“Because there’s no logical reason to keep us here!” Carey insisted, finally able to move once his cell door was locked again.  
He ignored the food.  
“I mean why were we made in the first place, huh? Think about it,” Carey went on, “it was just to see if they _could_. If they had their way we probably would have grown up in cages like these. We weren’t stolen from here, we were _rescued_. Their experiment is void because of outside factors and because we weren’t kept in a controlled environment. In any other circumstance the subjects would be destroyed.”  
He hesitated as soon as he said it, as if he hadn’t meant to. The awkward silence following it didn’t help.  
“But like I said,” he quickly went on as Alex was fed next, “there’s no logical reason to keep us here, and no reason to not let us go. We don’t know where we are, we can’t compromise anything. We’re no threat to them.”  
“Unless this gets out,” Taylor said thoughtfully, “unless people find out there’s multiples running around out there.”  
“You mean multiples of you,” Mark’s glare was back on him, “you don’t care about the rest of us.”  
“I didn’t know you existed until a month ago!” Taylor scorned.  
“Whatever.”  
“They haven’t found out yet, and they’re not going to,” Carey insisted.  
“I can probably help with that,” Alex raised a hand.  
“How?” Carey’s eyes went to him.  
Jesse wanted to look too, but didn’t trust Mark enough to look away again yet.  
“I’ve been monitoring the media for years to see if any of you popped up,” Alex began to explain, “I can keep doing that, and… I can probably erase it if we need.”  
“You can do that?” Jesse finally turned.  
Alex shrugged as if it was nothing.  
“So you’re like a hacker?” Carey raised a brow.  
Alex shrugged again.  
“That could come in handy,” Carey shared a glance with his brother.  
“If we ever get out of here,” Mark glared back. 

Morris returned almost as soon as Mark had been given his tray. He’d barely even touched the last one, and he dropped this one just as soon as the door opened again. Morris wasn’t alone, chauffeured by two orderlies.  
“Mr Hanson, please remain seated,” he was straightening a latex glove.  
“For what?” Taylor frowned.  
The door opened and one of the orderlies stepped through, holding a clipboard and pen out to him.  
“What’s this?” Taylor looked up to Morris.  
“Just a little formal paperwork to finish things off,” Morris replied as he stepped in, “we just need you to sign a few things then we’ll do one last little procedure and we can have you on your way.”  
“Procedure?” Carey jumped on immediately.  
“Yeah what procedure?” Taylor frowned as he took the board, quickly scanning the first page.  
“The contract you’re about to sign states some things I’ve already mentioned,” Morris ignored the questions, “we as a company will not follow or harass you without one of the clauses at the rear becoming apparent, but you will agree to contact us should any health issues arise. This includes any unforeseen injury or strain that you would otherwise see a doctor for.”  
Taylor instantly flipped to the back page. There were five in total.  
“We’d like to take care of you from now on.”  
“Won’t that be hard, considering y’all are like, West Coasters?” Jesse’s eyes narrowed.  
“Be assured you are all very important to us,” Morris looked over his shoulder, “we will send someone out as soon as possible to take care of whatever ailment holds you.”  
“Does this give you license _to_ harass us, if we don’t report absolutely everything?” Taylor had focused on one of the dot points in the back.  
“We’d like to keep a good watch on all of your health,” Morris was nodding as he spoke, “we need to know that we can trust you to report in, that’s all.”  
“What’s the procedure?” Mark demanded from across the way, noticing the subject had been diverted and everyone else had fallen for it.  
“Just a little something to make sure we don’t lose you all again,” Morris assured, Taylor pausing in his effort to go back to page one and start reading it properly.  
“What do you mean?” he asked, “you’re going to track us?”  
“Nothing to worry about,” Morris smiled again, “go ahead, take your time.”  
“Anything fishy?” Carey was looking over Taylor’s shoulder, but couldn’t quite read it.  
Taylor didn’t respond as he read, worried he might miss something. The room fell silent as he made sure to read it over twice carefully.  
“I didn’t pick up anything,” he turned to look up at Carey, “it’s just the clauses at the end you might want to go over.”  
“You’re not worried?” Carey asked, aware the doctor was just waiting for Taylor’s signature and could hear everything perfectly.  
“There’s nothing here that’s going to stop me getting home to my kids,” Taylor shrugged somewhat helplessly.  
“Without the signatures, I hope you understand, we can’t let you go,” Morris also looked up at Carey.  
That was enough for Taylor, and he was already signing the last page.   
“More blackmail,” Carey sighed.  
“I’m afraid so,” Morris found it amusing.  
When Taylor was done he handed the paperwork and pen back to the orderly who took it away. The second one stepped closer and Taylor instinctively leant back a little.  
“Your left arm, please,” Morris held out his right hand.  
“Are you going to tell me what you’re going to do?” Taylor’s brow rose, not moving his arm.  
“We are going to insert a small chip into your wrist,” Morris explained readily, “which will simply allow us to keep track of you, and of your vital signs.”  
“No,” Mark instantly put his foot down, “Carey? It’s not happening!”  
“So like a microchip,” Jesse realised, “like dogs.”  
“I’m not being fucking monitored!”  
“Calm down!” Carey scolded Mark.  
“Is this a deal breaker?” Taylor had to ask.  
“Yes,” Morris was stern.  
Taylor bit his lip, but held his arm out before he could decide otherwise. Morris was quick with the gun-like needle and it was over in seconds.  
“Well then,” he set it aside on the bed when he was done, leaving Taylor to cringe at the pain.  
“Let’s get you home, shall we?”


	10. Part Nine

“Tay? Tay?!”  
“Screw it, I’m calling an ambulance.”  
“Wait! I think he’s coming to.”  
Taylor groaned, his head already hurting without the loud voices that surrounded him.   
“Tay? Tay you have to wake up.”  
It took a moment to register as Isaac’s voice. But once it did, Taylor shot up.  
“Whoa! Hey!” Zac’s hand landed on his shoulder to keep him down.  
“Where am I?” Taylor blinked furiously, trying to clear his eyes.  
“You’re back at 3CG.”  
“Tay we just got in and found you here,” Isaac was kneeling beside the couch, “what the hell happened to you?”  
Taylor took a moment to get his bearings, and they waited.   
“We need to get rid of this couch,” was the first thing he said.  
“Are we sure we got the right one back, if there’s multiples?” Zac looked down at Isaac.  
“He’s wearing the same clothes,” Isaac pointed out.  
“I swear this thing is like a vortex, I always wake up here feeling like I’ve been on another planet or something.”  
“Tay?” Isaac hit his leg, trying to get his attention, “Tay you need to tell us what happened. Everybody’s been worried sick.”  
“Yeah, where were you?” Zac was frowning.  
Taylor looked between them for a moment, already not wanting to confirm…  
“It was real, wasn’t it?” he said out loud.  
“What? What was real?” Isaac pressed.  
“I was abducted,” he made eye contact, “I was in like a lab, in a cage. Please tell me that wasn’t real!”  
“Tay you’ve been gone for a whole day,” Zac tried to reason, “we don’t know where you’ve been.”  
“Oh God,” he covered his face with his hands.  
“You were in a lab?” Isaac tried to keep him going, “did it have to do with Carey? Or Mark?”  
“Yeah we thought Mark was coming for you,” Zac stood back a little.  
Taylor suddenly pulled his hands from his eyes and stared at his wrist.  
“What?” Isaac noticed right away.  
Taylor ignored him, using the pointer and middle fingers of his right hand to feel up and down his left wrist. It was still painful to touch where Morris had inserted the chip, and his breath caught in his throat when he felt a small lump sitting just under the skin about an inch further down.  
“It was real,” he whispered to himself, suddenly having trouble keeping it together.  
Isaac took hold of his right wrist, making him jump.  
“Tay you need to talk to us,” he insisted, “what happened last night? How can we help you?”  
“I don’t think you can,” Taylor shook his head, “they found us.”  
“They?” Zac’s eyes narrowed.  
“I have to call Nat,” Taylor tried to get up, “I have to let her know I’m okay.”  
“Already done,” Isaac insisted, a hand on his chest to hold him down again, “and you have her to thank for us not calling the cops.”  
“Yeah, we were so ready,” Zac shook his head, “but she thought if it was Mark – like we were expecting – you might not want them finding you.”  
“Mark was there,” Taylor managed to sit up properly at least, “they all were.”  
“All?” Isaac’s brow jumped and he looked up at Zac.  
“Mark and Carey were there?” Zac guessed.  
“And three others,” Taylor looked up.  
“And they all looked like you?” Isaac looked worried.  
“Yeah,” Taylor nodded, “I mean, mostly.”  
“So why are you here then, why did they let you go?” Zac was a different kind of worried, “a flying visit doesn’t make sense if these people have been after you…”  
“For thirty-three years,” Taylor rubbed the back of his neck, “they basically just… tested us, asked us questions about our lives… they wanted to see how different we were.”  
“Nature versus nurture. Makes sense,” Isaac reasoned.  
“They said if we signed a contract we could go,” Taylor shrugged, “I was the first one out.”  
“So the others are still there?”  
“What’s the time?” Taylor looked around.  
Zac checked his phone, then held it out.  
“I don’t know,” Taylor bit his lip, “we weren’t in the same time zone. We were somewhere on the West coast.”  
“That’s fast,” Zac said to Isaac, “they had to have him there and back within a day, and get everything done.”  
“They were prepared,” Isaac agreed, “maybe they’ve done this kind of thing before.”  
“That wouldn’t surprise me,” Taylor admitted.  
“So we can’t even contact these other ones to see if they’re okay?” Zac asked.  
“Carey never gave us any contact details,” Isaac confirmed, “he didn’t want Taylor involved.”  
“A lot of good that did,” Zac smirked, “I mean what’s to stop this happening again? What if this happens when we’re on tour? Surely these guys don’t want this getting out any more than we do.”  
“It was in the contract I signed,” Taylor said softly, “they’ll stay away as long as I abide by it.”  
“What do you have to do?” Isaac frowned, worried yet again.  
“Ah… report to them,” Taylor was starting to talk slower, as though the fact he’d been forcefully asleep for so many hours was starting to catch up to him, “I have to let them know if I get sick, or injured, or… I don’t know what else. Anything biology related, they want to know about it.”  
“That can’t be it,” Zac shook his head.  
“That’s the gist,” Taylor shrugged.  
“So how do you contact them?” Isaac asked.  
Taylor hesitated, realising he didn’t know. He didn’t remember being told.   
“And what happens if you don’t?” Zac added.  
“I don’t know,” Taylor was obviously worried too, “maybe I go back and I don’t get out next time.”  
There was an awkward moment of silence. Taylor broke it by finally standing up.  
“One of the guys there refused to be tested at all, I don’t think they’re going to let him go,” he revealed.  
“Why?” Zac asked.  
“I don’t know! I mean none of us wanted to do it,” he started pacing, “but I mean I had to, I had to get home. It was fucking scary in there.”  
“You said you were in a cage,” Isaac also stood.  
“Like cages at an animal shelter or something,” Taylor hugged his chest, “we had a bed and a bucket and that was it. Just this wire cage, and we were locked in.”  
“Together?”  
“No, separate.”  
“How many of them were there?” Zac was honestly curious.  
“Six of us altogether,” Taylor kept pacing, “there was me, Carey, Colin… the one that refused everything. Uh… Alex I think, Jesse and Mark. We were inducted in that order.”  
“What do you mean inducted?” Zac folded his arms too.  
“Just for identification I think,” Taylor shook his head.  
“And how do they expect to tell you apart?”  
“Well Mark and Carey do look pretty different,” Isaac pointed out.  
“But if they _wanted_ to look like Tay I bet it wouldn’t be hard to pull off.”  
“Trust me, no one wants to,” Taylor insisted, “I’m not exactly anyone’s favorite.”  
“Oh?” Zac raised a brow.  
“Yeah… Mark at least is definitely not a fan,” Isaac agreed, “he didn’t like the fact that Tay being in the public eye meant that he’d have to hide.”  
“It’s a consensus,” Taylor informed them, “I don’t think any of them were happy with it.”  
“How have they flown under the radar for this long anyway?” Zac was confused, “you’d think we’d notice there were so many guys running around out there with your face.”  
“They were careful. Well, most of them,” Taylor frowned, “I don’t know about one of them. He didn’t talk much. I think Alex is a hacker.”  
“Alex? One of the multiples?” Zac confirmed as Taylor’s phone started to ring.  
He immediately looked around, trying to spot it. Isaac was first to find it, and checked the caller ID before handing it over. It was a private number.  
“Hello?” Taylor answered apprehensively.  
“Taylor? It’s Carey. Where are you?”  
“Carey!” he locked eyes with Isaac, “I’m back at the studio, where are you?!”  
“Back home too,” Carey sounded tired, “I can’t find Mark.”  
“Were you second to leave?” Taylor moved back to the couch but didn’t take a seat.  
“No they waited. Alex and Jesse left before us, I think because they wanted to drop us back at the same time.”  
“But you can’t find him?”  
Isaac frowned as he and Zac listened in.  
“He might just not be awake yet but I’m worried he’s said or done something to piss them off.”  
“Give him a couple of hours maybe,” Taylor suggested, “where would they have dropped him?”  
“I don’t know, he could be anywhere. But that wasn’t why I was calling.”  
“Oh?” Taylor’s brow rose, absently starting to scratch at his arm.  
“The Doc was talking more after you left. He let slip a few things about the program. I’m just trying to remember what he said.”  
“Anything important?” Taylor frowned.  
“There was something about twelve embryos in total, I think including twins,” Carey revealed, “so with the six of us there were another six out there. There were two stillborns, a miscarriage, and one of them died as a baby. He didn’t say why. But that means there could be two more out there we don’t know about, and they don’t know where they are either.”  
Taylor hesitated, thinking back to his conversation with his mother.   
“I think I know about one of them,” he said after an extra moment of thought, knowing Isaac and Zac would overhear, “I spoke to my mother after the accident and she told me I was a twin.”  
“What?!” Zac’s voice went clearly through the phone.  
“You didn’t know?” Carey asked.  
“No, it was stillborn,” Taylor quickly added, “but that accounts for another one, so…”  
“There’s one more,” Carey realised.  
“But if no one knows they could also be dead,” Taylor shook his head.  
“Or they might not,” Carey pointed out, “we need to find Alex.”  
Taylor paused, ignoring his brothers talking in the background.  
“Are you saying you want my help with this?” he tested the waters.  
“I don’t know,” Carey admitted, “I’ll have to let you know.”  
“Please,” Taylor felt the need to beg, “ _please_ keep me updated. Don’t leave me in the dark on this one.”  
“I’ll try,” Carey offered, “but we need to work out how much we can trust you with first.”  
“You don’t think you can trust me?” Taylor’s brow rose again, “what have I ever done that told you you couldn’t?”  
“Nothing, you’re just very close to the media.”  
“I’m not about to go running off telling everyone that I was some fucking cloning experiment!” Taylor’s voice rose, “why would I do that?! That puts me in danger too! It puts my _family_ in danger!”  
“I don’t know, okay?!” Carey’s voice rose too, “and the fact that I don’t know is the problem! You’re just going to have to trust us on this one and let me handle it.”  
“Oh trust _you_?” Taylor seethed, “you want me to trust you but you won’t return it?”  
“I don’t have time for this.”  
Taylor scowled as Carey hung up, tempted to throw the phone across the room.   
“What was that about?” Zac raised a brow.  
Isaac jumped as the office phone started to ring, and quickly went to answer it.  
“I don’t even know,” Taylor shook his head, “Carey can’t seem to decide if he wants me involved or not, but I have a right to know what the fuck is going on. This is _my_ life too!”  
“No argument here,” Zac assured, “where is he?”  
“Home. LA,” Taylor elaborated, looking up as Isaac returned to the doorway.  
He still had the landline in his hand.  
“It’s for you,” he was looking at Taylor with an odd expression.  
“This isn’t exactly a great time,” Zac was surprised he’d answered at all.  
“Who is it?” Taylor stared at the phone.  
“Says his name is Jesse,” Isaac’s eyes darted to Zac, “kinda sounds like you with a Southern accent.”  
“Another one?” Zac’s brow furrowed as Taylor darted for the phone.  
“Hey, Jesse?”  
“Taylor Hanson? Oh, finally.”  
“How did you get this number?”  
“You know what? I don’t even remember. I had it written down from like ten years ago because I knew it was gonna be hard to find eventually.”  
“Ah… okay?” Taylor looked between Isaac and Zac who were both now giving him odd looks.  
“Carey will probably kill me when he finds out, but… I figured it was okay now that we’d actually met under not only bad but ‘forced’ circumstances…”  
“No it’s fine,” Taylor assured, “are you okay? Are you home?”  
“Not exactly, but they didn’t pick me up from home. Have to go back and try to convince my wife I didn’t skip out on her so that’s gonna be fun…”  
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Taylor tried to sound positive, considering how little Jesse did.  
“Yeah I know. But I still worry. Look, uh…”  
Taylor hesitated as Jesse spoke, his brain suddenly ticking over.  
“…I know this is probably sudden for you-“  
“It hasn’t been long,” he agreed.  
“-but I was hoping maybe we could talk? Like I know you’re a busy guy and all but Carey kinda wouldn’t let us-“  
“Can you come to Tulsa?” Taylor suddenly asked.  
‘What?!’ Zac mouthed as Isaac visibly clenched his teeth.  
“Uh… when?”  
“As soon as possible,” Taylor was staring Zac down, “I might need your help with something.”  
“Can you give me a couple of days to smooth things over with the wife?”  
“Sure.”  
“Then… okay I guess? I’ve never been to Tulsa.”  
“We’ve gotta be careful, obviously,” Taylor warned, “I might get you to come by the house first. Do you have pen and paper?”  
“Give me a sec.”  
Zac was still staring him down, but Isaac had given up and taken a seat.   
“I hope you tell Nat before another you turns up,” Zac’s eyes narrowed.  
“Of course,” Taylor scorned.  
When Jesse was ready he passed over both his home address and his cell phone number. Jesse returned with his, promising to give him a call in a few days’ time. It was an awkward goodbye.  
“So… what are you up to?” Isaac looked up from where he sat, “and what does Jesse have to do with it?”  
“Let me figure everything out first,” Taylor tapped the phone against his palm, “I need to be smart about this.”  
“Understatement,” Zac muttered.  
“And I need to talk to Mom and Dad,” Taylor insisted.


	11. Part Ten

“Mom?!” Taylor called out as he walked through the front door, “where are you?!”  
“In here!” he heard a distant call.  
He closed the door behind him and made his way through to find her in the kitchen.  
“Is Zoe home?” he asked.  
“She just left,” Diana didn’t look up, “was she supposed to meet you here?”  
“No, no,” he assured, “is Dad around?”  
“I think he’s out back.”  
Taylor stepped past her to look out the window, spotting him off to the side. He then made for the back door.  
“Is everything okay?!” Diana called after him, not getting a response.  
“Dad?!” he called from the back door, jumping when he realised he’d already walked closer.  
“Yes?” Walker smiled, knowing very well what he’d done.  
“I need to talk to you and Mom.”  
“Okay…” he walked past and back into the house.  
Taylor paused to take a deep breath before following him inside.   
“So what’s so important that it couldn’t be done over the phone?”  
“Don’t mind him,” Diana hit her husband on the shoulder.  
“Uh… can you come out to the car for a second?” Taylor thumbed over his shoulder, “I kinda want to show you guys something.”  
“Sure,” Diana gave Walker a curious glance.  
Taylor led the way as Walker shrugged in return.  
“I hope you haven’t been trying to build something again, we all know how that ended last time,” Walker joked as the door opened.  
Taylor said nothing as he made his way up the path. It didn’t take long for his parents to realise there was a stranger standing by Taylor’s car, but when he turned as he heard them coming they both stopped suddenly in their tracks.  
“Mom, Dad…” Taylor indicated him, “I’d like you to meet Jesse.”

“Nice to meet you! I mean I’ve heard a bit, but seeing you in person like… wow,” Jesse shook Walker’s hand.  
“We need to go inside,” Diana insisted, her face having fallen.  
“That’s a good idea,” Walker agreed, “Taylor?”  
“Fine by me,” he was watching his parents’ reactions with interest.  
“So this is where it all started, huh?” Jesse was more interested in the house itself, “which makes this like… the Hanson Mothership, right? Where’s the garage?”  
“There’ll be plenty of time for that later,” Taylor insisted, putting a hand on his shoulder as they followed his parents back in.  
Taylor readily took a seat at the kitchen table, and his mother sat in her usual spot. Jesse took a moment to look around at the photos on the walls before taking a seat near Taylor. Walker remained standing.  
“Your mother told me about the conversation you had after your accident,” he began, “about when you were born.”  
“You’re calling it an ‘accident’?” Jesse raised a brow.  
“Shh,” Taylor hit his arm.  
“Do you believe Jesse here… is your twin?” Walker continued without pause.  
“No,” Taylor was staring him down, “no, I don’t.”  
His parents shared a glance and Taylor’s eyes darkened. He leant forward onto the table.  
“You guys need to start talking,” he said determinedly, “because if my kids are in danger, I think I deserve to know.”  
Jesse sat back a little, looking between them. He felt like he’d walked in on a very awkward family moment.   
“How did you meet?” Diana asked, eyeing him.  
“We were abducted,” Jesse answered amiably, “I thought we were gonna die, but Tay here kept a level head like the _whole_ time.”  
“Please elaborate on the abduction part,” Walker was eyeing Taylor.  
“They were scientists,” Taylor’s voice was low and steady, like he was about to get angry, “they managed to find six of us.”  
“Only six,” Walker said to Diana under his breath.  
“Yeah we worked out there’s only seven of us still alive, so…” Jesse shrugged, hoping he was contributing but still feeling awkward.  
“Seven?” Diana frowned, “how?”  
“Miscarriage, stillborns, and I dunno about the last one…”  
“Let’s cut to the chase,” Taylor was obviously annoyed, “you know more than you’re letting on. Let’s just get this over with so we can decide what to do next. _Was_ I adopted?”  
“No,” Walker insisted.  
“You weren’t?” Jesse looked surprised.  
“Then how?” Taylor demanded, ignoring him.  
Diana and Walker shared yet another look, only riling Taylor up more.  
“We volunteered for the program,” his mother revealed, “there was a lot of question at the time about the morality of getting volunteers to… unknowingly harbour the embryos. Our superiors thought that if someone from the program volunteered ourselves it would sate a lot of fears.”  
Taylor sat back a little. He’d never heard his mother speak so formally about anything scientific before.  
“We decided to take on twin embryos ourselves, and there was one other set as well,” Walker added.  
“Carey and Mark,” Jesse shot Taylor a glance.  
“When the project was abandoned, the volunteers disbanded. Ourselves included,” he went on, “we hoped to never revisit that part of our lives.”  
“That’s not the way we heard it,” Taylor insisted, “the doctor we spoke to – who was ‘in charge’ of us – spoke about possible criminal charges against those who stole us.”  
“Yeah, I was there,” Jesse backed him up, “sounded like we were some important research experiment and they were pissed about losing us.”  
“That’s not entirely true,” Diana assured.  
“The experiment was abolished during the second trimester,” Walker explained, “again, due to the questions surrounding the morality. Management changed, and the viewpoints of those in charge changed with it. Do you know what they do with experiment subjects when a project is cancelled?”  
“They’re destroyed,” Diana answered before Taylor could, “they would have destroyed the embryos.”  
“You’re saying they would have killed us,” Jesse realised aloud.  
“Yes,” Walker agreed.  
“We were the only ones who knew it was going to happen, and instead of bowing to our employment agreement we chose to warn the other volunteers instead,” Diana explained, “we never saw them again, and we never hoped to.”  
“We took you to South America and continued to travel until the heat died down. We eventually chose Tulsa to settle in thinking it was both big and small enough to not attract attention.”  
“But you let him get famous,” Jesse looked confused, “why would you do that if you were so worried?”  
“It was what the boys really wanted. We couldn’t stand in their way,” Diana reasoned.  
“And what better place to hide than out in the open?” Walker added, “no one was looking at us, they were looking at Taylor and his brothers. If everyone else had been successful in hiding themselves – hiding their sons – there was no reason to believe they’d recognise his face at all.”  
Taylor ran his fingers through his hair, feeling like his entire childhood had just been pulled out from underneath him. It was a lot to take in.  
“You need to tell us what happened when they took you in,” Walker was determined, staring him down again.  
“Why didn’t you tell him?” Jesse asked instead.  
“We hoped he’d never find out,” Diana was honest, “and if we’d done our jobs well enough, he wouldn’t have. You shouldn’t have, either.”  
“Taylor?” Walker’s eyes hadn’t left him.  
“They drilled us,” Taylor sounded tired, “asked us about anything and everything health related, and they made us sign a contract saying we’d contact them if we ever got sick.”  
“You signed it?” Walker frowned.  
“I had to, or they wouldn’t let me go.”  
“I think they still have Colin,” Jesse said under his breath.  
“What exactly did you sign?” Walker demanded, “and do you have a copy?”  
“It doesn’t matter,” Taylor scorned, “what does matter is what we do now. I mean do I have to worry about these people? Are they going to come after the kids? Are _you guys_ in danger?”  
“That’s why we need to know what happened in Nevada,” Walker insisted.  
“Nevada?” Jesse jumped on, “you know where the labs are? Of course you know where the labs are. Tay we could go after Colin!”  
Taylor ignored him and lay his left arm out on the table, the underside of his wrist turned up. The scar was barely visible, but by using his right pointer finger he could push the chip so it was clear there was something under the skin.  
“They’re tracking us,” he revealed, “another little token of blackmail they wouldn’t let us leave without.”  
Diana immediately stood from her chair as Jesse looked down at his own wrist.  
“We have to leave,” she announced.  
“Hold on,” Walker insisted, raising a hand.  
“They could already be on their way here,” her voice lowered, “what then?!”  
“How long have you had that?” Walker pointed to it.  
“A few days,” Taylor replied.  
“They would have already been here,” Walker assured, “I think we’re okay for now.”  
“I had to give them your names,” Taylor looked between them, “nothing registered from what I could tell.”  
At the look his father gave him at that, Taylor frowned.  
“You guys have _fake names_?!” he was incredulous.  
“We had to, to throw them off our trail,” Walker quickly explained.  
“What happens if they find you?” Taylor frowned, “they’ve got eyes on me now it won’t be long until someone recognises your faces.”  
“We have to leave,” Diana repeated.  
“We need to be smart about it,” Walker warned, “we can’t just rush off out of the blue. It’ll draw attention.”  
“You could go on holiday?” Jesse suggested.  
“We should take Zoe with us,” Diana added, obviously worried.  
“What about us?” Taylor shrugged, “what happens to us if they find out about you? We can’t run.”  
“We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it,” Walker insisted, “for now we just need to get out of the line of fire, and hope that nothing has to change.”  
Taylor’s brows rose at that.  
“Nothing will change?” he smirked incredulously, “I’ve just found out my entire life has been a lie.”  
“No it hasn’t,” his mother scoffed.  
“We did everything in our power to raise you normally,” Walker insisted, “what good would it have done to spend your childhood looking over your shoulder? The answer is none.”  
Taylor felt like he should have had the choice of knowing, but didn’t want to argue the point. His parents were obviously on edge at the revelation.  
“I’ll start packing,” Diana gave Walker a pat on the arm, “when Zoe gets home we’ll tell her something came up.”  
“I feel like I should…” Jesse awkwardly stood from his chair and began toward the door.  
“Where are you from, Jesse?” Walker set his sights on him instead.  
“Just south of Shreveport, Louisiana,” he replied, twiddling his thumbs as he looked back at Taylor.  
“Do you remember your mother’s name?” Walker went on.  
“I never knew it,” he shrugged, “there was a clause in the adoption process that made sure she couldn’t be found by me and mine. I went looking as a teenager but I don’t even think it was on government record.”  
“There’s a reason for that,” Walker nodded, “she did well to try and keep you safe.”  
“Yeah, I guess,” he reached up to scratch under his cap, “still kinda wish I could meet her though.”  
“Sadly I hope you never do,” Walker offered a contradictory smile.  
Jesse returned it before taking his leave. Taylor stood from his chair once he was gone.  
“Dad…?” he wasn’t sure he wanted to ask the next part.  
He took a moment to gather his thoughts once he had Walker’s attention.  
“If you and Mom were there, right at the start of this whole thing…” he began carefully, “the guy at the labs told us basically how we were made. That they took some kind of sample and modified it and then… cloned it, which is what became us.”  
“In layman’s terms, that sounds about right,” Walker nodded.  
“He said the original sample came from a kid belonging to a research partner,” Taylor’s eyes narrowed, “they called it Baby Zero. Does that mean… Is Isaac Baby Zero?”  
In the few seconds pause that followed, Taylor already had his answer.  
“Yes,” Walker admitted softly, “and he’s the one they’ll truly be after.”


End file.
